2025 Festival Guest Artists
Flutist Amy Porter has been praised by critics both for her exceptional musical talent and her passion for scholarship. Through a versatile and distinguished career as a concert performer, she has become one of the most skillful and creative muses for composers of our time.
From her prolific performances of Michael Daugherty’s Trail of Tears to her October 2022 performance at Carnegie Hall celebrating Lukas Foss’s centennial with the Buffalo Philharmonic, Porter’s accomplishments speak for themselves.
The multifaceted Porter is also an acclaimed professor of music. Recipient of the Henry Russel Award in 2006, Amy has served as a mentor to developing musicians at the University of Michigan and leads an intensive residency at local colleges and universities for the study of flute performance. Her Blue Flute Studio specializes in exercises, audition materials and advice, as well as performance techniques for the next generation of flutists.
Since 2020, Amy has hosted her popular “PorterFlute Pod” podcast and her AOS-Wellness.com website offers her Anatomy of Sound™ curriculum. Building on Anatomy’s workshop success, the new AOS-Wellness.com website offers courses in peaceful breathing, yoga and meditation, along with channels on movement, meditation, wisdom, practice, and breathing. Through these platforms, Porter highlights the importance of self-care as a direct path to a successful musical career.
Amy Porter shares her story behind her successful music teaching curriculum in her latest book. Readers learn how they can balance musical expressions with physical presence, yielding a holistic approach to sound production. As a distinguished Professor, her approach has proved successful for a generation of flute players winning major professional posts.
She is the Founder of VoiceBox 3-D LLC as an innovator, producing “My Breathing Buddy” lung/ribcage/diaphragm simulators, combining her talents in music education with a drive for business, mentoring with UM Innovation Partners.
Winner of the 3rd Kobe International Flute Competition and the Paris/Ville d’Avray International Flute Competition, Ms. Porter has served on international juries around the world, including the 6th Kobe competition. She has been heard in recital on National Public Radio; on PBS’s Live From Lincoln Center; and featured on the covers and as a writer for the magazines Flute Talk in the USA and The Flute in Japan. Her popular study guide on the early 20-century German composer Sigfrid Karg-Elert elicited the following comment from the Spanish Flute Society: “Strength, beauty, a captivating and seductive force, sensitivity, perfection and a sense of humor characterize the impressive American flautist Amy Porter.”
She has won praise both as a recording artist and as a chamber musician. Corinna da Fonseca-Wollheim, in her New York Timesreview of the CD In “Translation: Selections from J.S. Bach’s Cello Suites” on the Equilibrium label, applauded Ms. Porter for her “gleaming, lyrical reading.”
As a member of Trio Virado, with violist Jaime Amador and guitarist João Luiz, she recently recorded the upcoming second CD “Scaramouche. Previously, they recorded “Mangabeira,” a CD featuring works by Piazzolla, Brouwer, Hand, Assad, and Luiz, about which Ken Keaton wrote in American Record Guide: “They [Trio Virado] present a set of performances that are unfailingly strong, expressive, and imaginative.”
Formerly a member of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Ms. Porter is Principal Flute of North Carolina’s Brevard Music Center, where she performs as soloist, chamber musician, and orchestral player.
Born in Wilmington, DE, Ms. Porter graduated from The Juilliard School as a student of Samuel Baron and Jeanne Baxtresser and pursued further studies at the Mozarteum Academy in Salzburg. She plays a 14K white gold flute with rose gold engraved keys made for her by the William S. Haynes Co.
A native of Chile, Alberto Almarza previously held the position of Principal Flute of the Philharmonic Orchestra of Santiago, and currently serves on the faculty at Carnegie Mellon as Professor of Flute. Additionally, he is the founder and Artistic Director of Carnegie Mellon’s The Consummate Flutist.
His skills as a pedagogue, lecturer and recitalist have led to invitations from major conservatories and international festivals around the world. He is a flute faculty at Atlantic Music Festival, and has offered curses at Tonebase Flute Online. Former students have won national and international competitions, have been appointed to major orchestras in the US, Europe, Latin America and Asia, and occupy prestigious academic positions.
He has served at the National Flute Association Advisory Board for New Music and the Career and Artistic Development Committees, and is currently a member of the NFA Flutist Quarterly Editorial Board, and was appointed Progrmam Chair for the 2024 NFA Convention. Mr. Almarza has appeared as soloist with Boston Modern Orchestra Project, Memphis Symphony, BachFest Chamber Orchestra, and the Philharmonic, National Symphony and National Chamber Orchestras of Chile, National Orchestra of Colombia, and was invited to performed at a TED TALK Conference, among many others.
In addition, he has collaborated with such artists as Julius Baker, Andrés Cárdenes, Alex Klein, Lionel Party, Cuarteto Latinoamericano, and the Arianna String Quartet. As a leading proponent of new music for the flute, Mr. Almarza has been instrumental in expanding the repertoire with numerous commissions and premieres of works by composers from around the world. Pieces written for him include six flute concerti and dozens of solo and chamber works. He can be heard on radio broadcasts of International Music from Carnegie Mellon throughout North and South America, on compact discs from New Albion, Elán, Albany Records, Centaur Recordings and Naxos Records. He and his vast flute collection were also featured on the PBS program Horizons.
During his free time Mr. Almarza enjoys adventure motorcycling, and has ridden to some of the most remote places around the world, including Patagonia, the Atacama Desert, the Arctic Circle in Alaska, and secluded areas in New Zealand. He is also an avid bird-watcher and photographer, and a private pilot.
I-Ling Emily Ho is a flutist from Taiwan, currently pursuing her Doctor of Musical Arts in Flute Performance at the University of Iowa under the guidance of Professor Nicole Esposito. She is also studying Piano Performance as a secondary with Dr. Alan Huckleberry. From 2020 to 2021, Emily served as a full-time flutist with the Guiyang Symphony Orchestra, and prior to that, she worked as a substitute musician with the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra from 2018 to 2020.
Emily holds a Performance Certificate from the Shanghai Orchestra Academy (2018) and a Master’s degree from the Shanghai Conservatory of Music (2019). She was twice selected to participate in the Asian Youth Orchestra Music Camp and the YMCG Youth Music Culture The Greater Bay Area, performing widely across Asia.
In recent years, Emily’s accomplishments include being named Final Alternate in the National Flute Association Young Artist Competition (2023), winning first place in the San Diego Young Artist Competition (2023), and winning first place in both the Myrna W. Brown Artist Competition and the Philadelphia Young Artist Competition in 2024.