April Clayton is in ever increasing demand as a soloist, chamber musician, orchestral player and pedagogue. Performance highlights include venues such as Italy’s Palazzo dei Congressi, Leipzig’s Gewandhaus, the Holder’s Season Festival in Barbados, the Seminários Internacionais de Musica in Salvadore, Brazil, and recitals in London, Zurich, Paris, Moscow, Vancouver, Mexico, throughout South Korea, New York City, and across the United States. She is currently Associate Professor of Flute at Brigham Young University. In 2007 she was a guest artist instructor at the Conservatoire du Vesinet and the Centre de Musique F. Hasselmann in France.
A dedicated performer of new music, April Clayton will be presenting a concert of premieres written for her in Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall on April 22, 2008. Her new CD of flute concertos will be released next year on the Tantara Label, featuring two concertos that were written for her. She has received two “Best Performance” awards from the National Flute Association for her renditions of newly commissioned compositions. April Clayton received a Full Fellowship to attend the Aspen Music Festival as the flutist with the Aspen Contemporary Ensemble. She also toured internationally with the New Juilliard Ensemble. Additional new music performances include the Summergarden Concert Series at the Museum of Modern Art in Manhattan and Lincoln Center’s Focus! Festival for New Music.
Ms. Clayton presented her debut solo recital in New York’s Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall as a winner of the Artists’ International Competition, and is a laureate of many other competitions. Her recent CD, Flûte Agréable, was released on the Crystal Records label. Reviews from the New York Concert Review, Fanfare, American Record Guide, and Flute Talk magazines describe her playing using such terms as “stunning”, “dazzling”, “impeccable”, “[played] with total conviction”, “outstanding”, “thoroughly polished”, “beguiling”, “superb”, “elegant”, and “delectable”.
Ms. Clayton was a National Merit Scholar at Oberlin College and Conservatory, studying flute performance and mathematics. She subsequently graduated with her B.M. (summa cum laude) and M.M. degrees from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. At The Juilliard School, she was a Starr Doctoral Fellow and the youngest student to have been admitted to the D.M.A. program. She was formerly Principal Flute with the New York Lyric Orchestra and the Jupiter Symphony; currently, she is a member of the Orpheus Winds Quintet and Principal Flute with the Utah Chamber Artists.
