Mimi Stillman

Mimi Stillman (born Boston) is a prominent concert flutist. She has been hailed by The New York Times as "a consummate and charismatic performer."[1] Called "the coolest flute player" by Philadelphia Magazine.[2] A Yamaha Performing Artist, she has appeared as soloist with orchestras including The Philadelphia Orchestra, Bach-Collegium Stuttgart, Hilton Head Orchestra, Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra, Orquesta Sinfónica de Yucatán,[3] Orquesta Sinfónica Carlos Chávez (Mexico City), Oklahoma City Philharmonic, Orchestra 2001, Ocean City Pops, Spartanburg Philharmonic Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra of the Triangle, and Curtis Chamber Orchestra. She has appeared as recitalist and chamber musician at The Kennedy Center, Carnegie Hall, the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, Bard College, La Jolla Chamber Music Society, Kingston Chamber Music Festival, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Bay Chamber Concerts (ME), Verbier Festival (Switzerland), Israeli radio Kol HaMusica, National Sawdust, Roulette, and Festival delle Nazioni (Italy).

Career

At 12, Stillman was the youngest wind player ever admitted to the Curtis Institute of Music, where she studied with Julius Baker and Jeffrey Khaner and awarded her Bachelor of Music degree in 1999. The same year she became the youngest wind player to win the Young Concert Artists. She has been awarded fellowships from the Earhart and Bradley Foundations, and was a member of Astral Artists. In March 2012, she received the Women in the Arts award from Women for Greater Philadelphia.[4]

She founded the Dolce Suono Ensemble in Philadelphia in 2005, and serves as Executive and Artistic director, The ensemble's commissioning program has led to the creation of 44 new works in eleven years from composers including Richard Danielpour, David Ludwig, Jennifer Higdon, Steven Mackey, Shulamit Ran, and Steven Stucky. Its guest composers have included George Crumb and Ned Rorem.[5] Among the ensemble's most ambitious projects to date was Mahler 100/Schoenberg 60, a two-year cycle of concerts featuring those two closely linked two composers alongside newly commissioned works related to them, with performances in Philadelphia and New York.[6] The ensemble has been awarded grants from organizations including the National Endowment for the Arts, Pew Center for Arts & Heritage,[7] Musical Fund Society of Philadelphia, William Penn Foundation, and Yamaha Corporation of America.[5] The ensemble made its New York City debut at Symphony Space in February 2012.[8]

On the CD MIMI, Stillman recorded her arrangements of Debussy's songs, Nuits d'Étoiles: 8 Early Songs (Theodore Presser Company). She has also recorded for the EMI, Albany, and Dolce Suono labels. Her Double CD release Odyssey on Innova features premiere recordings of eleven American flute works.[9] Stillman has been a guest on NPR’s Performance Today, WGBH Boston, WRTI Radio, and WHYY-TV Philadelphia's On Canvas show, and is host and performer on the Musical Encounters TV show and video The Magic Flute. She recorded the soundtrack for Kevin Bacon's film Loverboy.

Stillman has taught masterclasses and performed recitals for the National Flute Association, New England Conservatory, Eastman School of Music, Princeton University, Cornell University, Flute Society of Washington, D.C., Texas Flute Society, University of California, Music for All Festival, San Diego Flute Guild, and other universities and flute societies throughout the United States. She received an MA in history and was a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Pennsylvania. A published author on music, history and international relations,[10] she is also a columnist for Flutewise Magazine (UK).

On August 22, 2012, the 150th anniversary of Debussy's birth, she embarked on "Syrinx Odyssey," an ambitious project to film herself playing his solo flute work Syrinx every day for a year, filmed in different locations over 366 days, with each new video performance posted on line every day.[11]

In 2013, Mimi Stillman joined the faculty of Settlement Music School as the first-ever Shirley and Sid Curtiss Distinguished Faculty Chair, chamber music coach, and lead faculty member of the school's Shirley Curtiss Center for Woodwind Studies.[12] She left the position in 2015.

In 2014, Mimi Stillman was inducted as an honorary member in Sigma Alpha Iota, together with Jennifer Higdon.

Orchestrally, she has performed with conductors including Sir Simon Rattle, Wolfgang Sawallisch, André Previn, Kurt Masur, David Zinman, Christoph Eschenbach, Yuri Temirkanov, Marin Alsop, and Robert Spano.

Selected publications

Claude Debussy, Nuits d'étoiles: Eight Early Songs, arr. Mimi Stillman for flute and piano (King of Prussia, PA, 2002: Theodore Presser).

Mimi Stillman, Debussy, Painter of Sound and Image, Flute Quarterly (Fall 2007): 41-46.

Mimi Stillman, The Music of Dante's Purgatorio, Hortulus: The Online Graduate Journal of Medieval Studies 1, no. 1 (2005): 13-21.

Mimi Stillman, Philadelphia's Changing Opera Landscape, NewMusicBox, 11 June 2012.

Mimi Stillman, "Into the Light: Mieczyslaw Weinberg's Five Pieces for Flute and Piano", The Flutist Quarterly (Winter 2016)

Selected recordings

Freedom: Premiere recordings by Richard Danielpour, David Finko,and Mieczyslaw Weinberg. Mimi Stillman, flute and Charles Abramovic, piano, with Yumi Kendall, cello. Innova Recordings, 2015.

Odyssey: 11 American Premieres for Flute and Piano (2-CD set), Mimi Stillman, flute, Charles Abramovic, piano, Innova Recordings 814 (2011).

The Concertos of David Finko / Mimi Stillman, piccolo, with Orchestra 2001 and James Freeman, conductor. Centaur, 2013.

Jeremy Gill, Chamber Music, TROY1067.

Notes: Music from Four Continents, Mimi Stillman, flute, Allen Krantz, guitar. Direct-to-Tape DTR2021 (2012).

Mimi: Debut Solo Recording with Charles Abramovic, piano. Music by Poulenc, Debussy, premieres by Daniel Dorff and Lawrence Ink, Astor Piazzolla, and Brazilian choros. Dolce Suono, 2004.

Video recording of George Crumb's "Vox Balaenae" ("Voice of the Whale") for Curtis Performs.

References
  1. Fonseca-Wollheim, Corinna da (10 December 2013). "Dolce Suono Ensemble and Lucy Shelton at Roulette". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 15 May 2019.
  2. Butler, Bryan (29 October 2014). "Our Chat With Mimi Stillman, the Coolest Flute-Player in Philly". Philadelphia Magazine. Retrieved 15 May 2019.
  3. Orquesta Sinfónica de Yucatán (20 March 2014), Promocional Mimi Stillman, Orquesta Sinfónica de Yucatán, retrieved 15 May 2019
  4. "About". MimiStillman.com. Retrieved 15 May 2019.
  5. "About". Dolce Suono Ensemble. Retrieved 15 May 2019.
  6. Stearns, Patrick (10 May 2011). "See how it grows". www.philly.com. Archived from the original on 21 December 2014. Retrieved 15 May 2019.
  7. "Dolce Suono Chamber Music Concert Series". The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage. 1 December 2016. Retrieved 15 May 2019.
  8. Schweitzer, Vivien (7 February 2012). "Dolce Suono Ensemble at Symphony Space". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 15 May 2019.
  9. November 2, Frank J.; Oterion (2 November 2011). "Sounds Heard: Odyssey—Mimi Stillman & Charles Abramovic". NewMusicBox. Retrieved 15 May 2019.
  10. Pipes, Daniel; Stillman, Mimi. "The United States Government: Patron of Islam?" (PDF). Meria. Archived from the original (PDF) on 26 November 2008. Retrieved 8 April 2012.
  11. David Patrick Stearns, "A yearlong Debussy tribute: Same flute solo every day," Philadelphia Inquirer (4 Sept 2012).
  12. "Settlement Music School Faculty". Retrieved 20 September 2013.
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