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Historical Piano Concerts Series
About the Musicians

Mary Oleskiewicz

Mary Oleskiewicz, Baroque Flute

Hailed as “one of the greatest baroque flutists of our time” (American Record Guide), Mary Oleskiewicz enjoys a career as performer-scholar. After winning first prizes in both the National Flute Association’s Baroque Flute Artist and Doctoral Dissertation Competitions, she quickly established herself as an international performer and master teacher. An authority on music of the Bach family and of music at the 18th-century court of the flute-playing Prussian King Frederick ‘the Great,’ her acclaimed musicological essays, prize-winning editions, and commercial recordings have focused on the music of Quantz, C.P.E. Bach, King Frederick, and J.S. and C.P.E. Bach. A solo artist for the Hungaroton Classic and Naxos labels, her last CD release is a world premiere of 18th-century flute concertos, which she rediscovered in Russia and recorded with Miklós Spanyi and Concerto Armonico. She is currently completing a book of essays, J. S. Bach and His Sons, Bach Perspectives vol. 11 (Indiana University Press), for the American Bach Society.

This past spring Mary toured China as a soloist on modern and baroque flutes with pianist and harpsichordist Yuan Sheng, and was hosted by UCLA, the Bob Cole Conservatory and the Los Angeles Flute Guild to perform programs of Bach’s flute music and to give modern and baroque flute masterclasses. Her flutist career has taken her to Australia, Japan, Mexico, and throughout Europe. She has played North American concerts at New York City’s Lincoln Center and The Library of Congress, Washington D.C., and has performed with ensembles including the Arcadia Players, Boston Pro Musica, Chicago’s Baroque Band, and La Fontegara (Mexico City). She has also performed as a regular member of the Handel and Haydn Society Orchestra and the Youngstown, OH Symphony Orchestra. She is currently principal flutist of the Boston-based Newton Baroque Orchestra.

Mary also dances and teaches Argentine tango, plays the bandoneòn, and improvises on Indigenous North and South American flutes. Currently she serves as Associate Professor of Music at the University of Massachusetts, teaching flute and courses in European music and Latin American music and dance. She has been a frequent guest professor and lecturer at Queens College, New York City and during the past academic year has been an invited guest artist in Tango at Harvard and Tufts Universities. Fluent in German, she has held the position of Visiting Professor in early music at the University of the Arts in Berlin. Previously, she served as Professor of Flute at the University of South Dakota, and was Curator of Musical Instruments at the National Music Museum there. She has held several multi-year fellowships from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation and the Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD) to fund her creative and research pursuits abroad. 

For more about her, please visit BaroqueFlutist.com.