About the music:
Liebermann's Sonata for Flute Movement 1 - I love Lowell..he is my absolute, all-time favorite! (next to Shostakovich, of course!)
Liebermann's Sonata for Flute Movement 2 - another one of my favorites from my graduate recital. Again, not perfect, but it was the last piece on my recital that lasted about 1.5 hours, so I was very tired!!
Movement 2 from Vivaldi's Piccolo Concerto, RV 443. Solo performance with the University of Florida Concert Band. Ehh..it's okay.
Shulamit Ran's East Wind for solo flute. Recorded at Mercer University on 2/25/07. This was my 3rd recording (I recorded 2 in my garage, 2 on stage) of this work. I have faults in each one, but this was my best out of the three. I could've slowed bits of it down, but I think the tempo of this particular take expresses the mood I've been in lately. lol
Movement 1 "Questioning" from John La Montaine's Sonata for Solo Flute. Yes that is a plane flying overhead during that piece! How lucky can one recital be? A dropped cello in the Bach, plane in the La Montaine, and tower in the Taffanel. Unreal.
A small bit about me: I'm not a conservatory grad, I am a product of the University school systems. I am a big believer that you don't have to attend a wonderful music school or conservatory to compete with the prodigies that come out of those schools. Don't get me wrong, I would love to have studied with the big name teachers, but it just wasn't in the cards for me. Props to those who get to. For the most part, I was self taught until college, and now I am self taught again. I haven't had a flute lesson or been involved in a masterclass in almost 4 years. I rely a lot on articles, performances, and my own instinct to guide me.
If you didn't already know, I am a wife and the mother of two wonderful children, Jordan and Jenna. I also have a stepson named Jordan too! I used to practice 4 hours a day, but with kids, it's impossible. My family comes first and I spend my days taking care of them, and then my occasional hour or two a few nights a week practicing. I'm not a polished performer by any means. I play the flute because I love it!!
Notable orchestral conductor Raymond Chobaz has described Cristina Ledford as a 'most impressive piccoloist' and 'a musician with the love, understanding, maturity, motivation, and integrity of a true professional'. Her passion for the piccolo has made her an advocate of the little instrument. She performs on the piccolo and promotes the instrument both in schools and in the public. At the age of 30, Cristina Ledford has a vast repertoire of about 200 works: from piccolo solos, sonatas and concertos, to the standard flute repertoire, to a large amount of new music and jazz compositions.
Cristina began playing the piccolo at age 8, before she began the flute. Throughout high school and college, she won many awards and performed several times as a soloist with both symphony orchestras and concert bands. She won third place in the University of Central Florida Concerto Competition in 2000 and first place in the Treasure Coast Youth Symphony Concerto Competition in 1994. In 2003, Cristina was asked to perform with the University of Florida Concert Band, where she performed the band arrangement of Vivaldi's 'Piccolo Concerto in C Major', performing her own rendition of the famous 'largo' second movement. Cristina also gave the first strictly piccolo recital ever at the University of Florida back in 2002. She served as principal flute of the Central Florida Symphony Orchestra from 2001-2003, where she was originally the piccoloist. She was the 1995 winner of the Semper Fidelis award from the United States Marines and the 1994 Young Floridian Award Finalist in music. Cristina Ledford received her Master of Music from the University of Florida, Bachelor of Music from the University of Central Florida and Associate of Arts from Indian River Community College. In addition to her piccolo and flute, she also served as lead tenor saxophone in the IRCC jazz band. She also was selected as the piccoloist for the 2000 Florida Intercollegiate Band and Southern Division Intercollegiate Band and also the piccoloist for the 1993 Festival of Winds Wind Ensemble at the University of South Florida. Cristina has served as piccoloist in all of her college ensembles. She can be heard on the University of Florida's most recent CD's entitled 'Dances and Dreams' and 'Mountain Music'. Last year, she recorded a CD with her uncle, Marcos Vega (Paraguayan Harpist), entitled 'Christmas Joy'.Her most recent research projects include: The Symphonies of Lowell Liebermann; Igor Stravinsky: An In Depth Look Into The Rite of Spring, The Firebird and Petrushka; The Role of the Piccolo in the Music of Shostakovich and Prokofiev; and The History of the Piccolo. Cristina was selected by a worldwide audition to play piccolo in the 2005 Rome Festival Orchestra. She also premiered the piccolo/piano reduction of the Piccolo Concerto by Juilliard doctoral student, Avner Dorman, in April of 2003.
In addition to her recent performances and recitals, Cristina is also an active band director in Florida and Georgia. Cristina is also an active member of the Florida Flute Association and the National Flute Association. She won the FFA Advanced Masterclass competition twice (2001, 2003) and was a finalist in the FFA Young Artist Competition in 2000. She has performed in flute and piccolo masterclasses for Bernard Goldberg, Jill Felber/Claudia Anderson (ZAWA!) Martha Rearick, Mary Karen Clardy, Nan Raphael, Amy Rice-Blumenthal, Jeanne Tarrant, Aaron Goldman, Alexa Still, Michel Debost and Walfrid Kujala. Her flute teachers include Christina Burr, Dr. Nora Lee Garcia, Susan McQuinn, Peter Lloyd, Erika Leake, and Dr. Kristen Stoner. Cristina teaches privately in and around Central Georgia.
Cristina's current venture includes the opening of her new site, www.piccoloist.com, where piccolo and flute players from around the globe can communicate and publish information about the piccolo.
UPDATE!!! Cristina will be recording her first solo CD of PICCOLO MUSIC!!!!!!!!! Scheduled release will be sometime in 2008!
