Flutist Patricia Spencer’s career sparkles with exciting premieres: her highly acclaimed New York premiere of the Elliott Carter flute concerto; her acclaimed US premiere of Karlheinz Stockhausen’s Kathinkas Gesang als Luzifers Requiem (staged scene for solo flute and electronic sounds); her US premiere of Thea Musgrave’s Narcissus (for solo flute and digital delay); her Chinese premiere of Ge Gan-ru’s flute concerto, Fairy Lady ‘Meng Jiang’; her world premiere of Shulamit Ran’s flute concerto, Voices; world premiere of Harvey Sollberger’s Riding the Wind I — the list goes on and on.

 

Besides premieres, notable appearances have included: Pierre Boulez’s Sonatine at the Bard Festival and also the Look & Listen Festival (MusicWeb International declared the Look & Listen performance “sensational”); the flute concerto by Joan Tower (which drew a standing ovation) and a Telemann Duo (with flutist Carol Wincenc) at various National Flute Association Annual Conventions; George Crumb’s Idyll for the Misbegotten with So Percussion and Mario Davidovsky’s Quarteto with the Avalon String Quartet in New York; solo performances at an International Computer Music Conference in Beijing, China, and in Moscow at the Alternativa Festival.

 

Her solo CDs (Neuma Records) have been greeted with warm enthusiasm by critics, as have countless chamber music CDs with the Da Capo Chamber Players. Numerous composers have written flute works for her, and the number of chamber works written for Da Capo exceeds 150.

 

Spencer’s teachers include Robert Willoughby, Josef Marx, Marcel Moyse, and David Berman; she has studied Alexander technique with June Ekman. She teaches flute and chamber music at Bard College/Conservatory and Hofstra University.