boston flute academy
Faculty
Judy Grant
Founder, Artistic Director, Flute/Piccolo Faculty
Judy Grant is a professional flutist who has received national recognition for her teaching expertise. She is the Flute Professor at Boston College and the Founder and Artistic Director of Boston Flute Academy (BFA) where she teaches flute and piccolo, coaches flute ensembles, and has created a teacher training program for pre-professionals, a mentoring program for young children, a full time gap year program for flute majors, an adult continuing studies program, and an innovative curriculum with access to world class musicians for flutists of all ages and levels. Known for her problem-solving skills and her ability to uncover students’ true musical potential, she is in high demand as a private teacher and masterclass clinician. Her BFA students are recruited every year by colleges and conservatories across the USA and abroad, such as Eastman, Juilliard, Curtis, NEC, and the Royal Academy of Music in London. Her high school students have been featured on ‘From the Top’ show and are regular finalists and have won 1st prizes in the NFA High School Soloist Competition, young artist concerto and flute festival competitions, and top youth orchestra placements, including NYO-USA. Her BFA Young Artist Program graduates have gone on to win principal flute positions in orchestras around the USA and to win soloist prizes world-wide, including Kobe International Flute Competition 4th prize, Nielsen and Geneva International Flute Competitions final rounds, 1st prize in New York Flute Club Young Artist Competition, 1st prize in Byron Hester Flute Competition in Texas, and both 3rd and 1st prizes in the National Flute Association Young Artist Competition. Over the course of her career, Ms. Grant has participated in pedagogical research studies and has developed her own teaching methods working with over one thousand flute students of all ages and levels, including flute players from more than 20 countries. As a performer, Ms. Grant is at home in a wide range of styles, from Baroque to Contemporary, and in a variety of settings, from concert hall to recording studio. She holds her Masters degree in flute performance from Boston University College of Fine Arts. Her primary teachers were Leone Buyse, Brooks de Wetter-Smith and Irene Maddox, who passed on their impeccable legacies along with those of Rampal, Galway, Mariano, Pappoutsakis, and Moyse.
Deborah DeWolf Emery
Piano Accompanist & Performance Coach
Deborah DeWolf Emery began studying piano when she was five years old and performed in her first piano competition in Chicago at the age of eight. By the time she entered the Oberlin College Conservatory of Music, she had won top prizes in piano competitions sponsored by the Music Teachers’ National Association, the Federated Music Clubs, the Women’s Association of the Minnesota Symphony, the National Guild of Piano Teachers, the American College of Musicians and many others.
While at Oberlin, where she received a Bachelor of Music degree with honors in piano performance, she discovered the joys of chamber music. She has had the pleasure of performing all over the world in collaboration with a long list of musicians drawn from major orchestras, chamber groups, and music schools, as well as notable soloists. As one of the pianists with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, she has worked with eminent conductors such as James Levine, Bernard Haitink, Seiji Ozawa, and Sir Simon Rattle, and with composers such as Luciano Berio, John Cage, Witold Lutoslawski, and John Williams. She has performed in the major halls of Europe, South America, Japan and Hong Kong.
Ms. Emery has recorded with the Hawthorne String Quartet and with BSO principal players Charles Schlueter, trumpet, Edwin Barker, doublebass, and Douglas Yeo, bass trombone. She has also participated in several recordings with the BSO and Boston Pops. She studied piano with John Perry and Jack Radunsky at Oberlin, and with Andre Watts at Tanglewood.