Beverly Crawford is currently Third Flute and Piccolo for the Eastern Connecticut Symphony, Principal Flute for the Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre, Principal Flute for Wolf Trap Opera, and a freelancer in the Northeast. She served as Guest Assistant Principal Flute for the Baltimore Symphony from 2008 to 2014 as well as Second Flute in Pittsburgh Opera from 2002 to 2018 and Principal Flute for Green Mountain Opera Festival in 2014. She previously held principal and second flute positions in orchestras, opera, and ballet companies in Akron, Columbus (OH), Toledo, Syracuse, and Knoxville. She has also performed with the Hartford Symphony, Pittsburgh Symphony, Harrisburg Symphony, Washington National Opera, National Symphony, Albany Symphony, Hartford Symphony, and the New York Philharmonic. She has worked with Andre Previn, David Robertson, Mariss Jansons, Yan Pascal Tortelier, Marin Alsop, Maxim Shostakovich, Mstislav Rostropovich, Juanho Mena, Christoph Eschenbach, Vasily Petrenko, Leonard Slatkin, Jaap van Zweden, Susanna Mälkki, and Michael Tilson Thomas. In 2004 she was honored to perform at the Vatican for Pope John Paul II.
Crawford received her Bachelor’s in Music from Northwestern University and her Master’s in
Music History from Florida State University, where she studied ethnomusicology and taught traditional and baroque flute. She also studied at the Académie Internationale d’été de Nice, France, and at the School of Scottish Studies at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland. She has two sons, one teaching mathematics in Texas and one studying electronic music composition at the Hartt School.
Favorite musical memory: Sitting with my dad while he played his favorite recordings and told me the stories of Symphonie Fantastique or Firebird.
Favorite Composer: Instead of favorite composers, I have favorite pieces…Knoxville: Summer of 1915 by Samuel Barber; “Ain’t it a pretty night” from Susannah by Carlisle Floyd; The Marriage of Figaro by W.A. Mozart; the Priests’ Chorus from The Magic Flute by W.A. Mozart; the Te Deum scene from Tosca by Giacomo Puccini; Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves from Nabucco by Giuseppe Verdi; Four Last Songs by Richard Strauss; the ballets Cinderella and Romeo and Juliet by Sergei Prokofiev; the Rückert-Lieder by Gustav Mahler; Symphonies 1-5 by Gustav Mahler; Appalachian Spring by Aaron Copland.
What/Who inspired you to take up your instrument: I was trying to decide between the tuba and the horn when my aunt gave us her old flute. My dad fixed it up for me (because he could do anything) and that was it!
Nancy Chaput is a familiar face amongst concert goers in southeastern Connecticut and is well known as an orchestral musician, soloist, chamber musician and music educator.
Originally from the Midwest, Chaput came east to study flute with James Pappoutsakis at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston. Following graduation and a successful audition, she became Principal Flute in the United States Coast Guard Band. In this position, Chaput was a frequent soloist on the band’s concert schedule, was a founding member of the Coast Guard Woodwind Quintet, helped launch the fledgling Chamber Series and participated in numerous educational outreach programs.
Chaput has been a member of the Eastern Connecticut Symphony Orchestra, as Principal Flute, for over thirty years. Her busy orchestral career has kept her traveling across the state and includes performances with the Hartford, Waterbury and New Britain Symphonies.
She has had the honor of frequently appearing as soloist with the Eastern Connecticut Symphony, performing works by Rouse, Griffes, Faure, Mozart and Chaminade. She has performed the Bach Suite in b Minor with the Connecticut Virtuosi and the Telemann Suite in a Minor throughout the state with the Connecticut Chamber Ensemble. As a high school student, she soloed with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra and the Green Bay Philharmonic.
Always an active music educator, Chaput has been on the faculties of the University of Connecticut, the Thames Valley Music School and the Community Music School in Essex, CT. In the ten years she spent on the University of Connecticut faculty, she was a regular recitalist on the Von der Mehden series and was the featured soloist in Joseph Schwantner’s, A Play of Shadows…, with the University Symphony Orchestra. As a chamber player, she participated both on and off campus with the Faculty and Friends music series.
Throughout her career, she has maintained a private flute studio. She finds much gratification in having played a part in inspiring others to pursue and enjoy the study of music, whether as a profession or avocation.
Clare Iannotta Nielsen holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Flute Performance from the New England Conservatory of Music and a Master’s Degree in Music History from Tufts University. She lives in Boston and performs throughout New England. In addition to the Eastern Connecticut Symphony Orchestra, Clare is a member of the Ariel Wind Quintet and the Elara Trio. Her recordings include Daniel Pinkham’s Advent Cantata, Peter Child’s Wind Quintet, Gardner Read’s The Art of Song, and Toni Lester’s All Things and Will The Time Ever Come?