ClubFCNY Teacher Spotlight - Brian Allred
ClubFCNY Teacher Spotlight Interview
Using Other Artistic Disciplines to Inform Your Flute Teaching with Brian Allred
Altus Artist Brian Allred enjoys a varied repertoire as a soloist, with orchestras, and as a chamber musician. He won first place and best performance of the newly commissioned work in the 2019 Myrna W. Brown Artist Competition in Texas and also received top prizes in the South Carolina Flute Society Young Artist Competition and the Contemporary Performance Competition at the Cortona Sessions for New Music in Cortona, Italy. Brian performed in the Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall as a First Prize Winner in the Golden Classical Music Awards. He has also been a prizewinner in the Upper Midwest Flute Association Young Artist Competition and a finalist in the Byron Hester Flute Competition. In November 2019, Brian appeared as a soloist with the Sioux City Symphony Orchestra, performing Kaija Saariaho's Aile du songe. Brian currently serves as Principal Flute of the Sioux City Symphony Orchestra, flutist in the Additive Color Ensemble, and on the New Music Advisory Committee with the National Flute Association. He teaches flute and music theory at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire.
Brian completed his Doctor of Musical Arts degree at the University of Kansas where he served as the flute Graduate Teaching Assistant and studied with Michael Gordon of the Kansas City Symphony and Dr. Sarah Frisof. He received his Master of Music from Birmingham Conservatoire in the United Kingdom. In addition to his studies and performing in Birmingham, Brian developed an interest in Baroque flute and won first prize in the Corton-Hyde Early Music Prize. During his undergraduate study at the Crane School of Music at SUNY Potsdam, Brian performed regularly with a number of ensembles including the Orchestra of Northern New York, Northern Symphonic Winds, and at Avery Fisher Hall in New York City with the Crane Symphony Orchestra.
Hailing from Plano, TX, Brian spent his formative years as a musician playing both violin and flute in school. During his time in Potsdam, NY, he developed a love for dance, embracing his musical knowledge as a choreographer and performer. Brian continues to expand his involvement in the arts, exploring new avenues for sharing his work with new audiences.