Mimi Stillman

Mimi Stillman is an American flutist celebrated for her solo and chamber music performances internationally. A Yamaha Performing Artist, she has appeared as soloist with The Philadelphia Orchestra, Bach-Collegium Stuttgart, Hilton Head Orchestra, Orquesta Sinfónica Carlos Chávez (Mexico City), Chamber Orchestra of the Triangle, Oklahoma City Philharmonic, Texas Brazos Valley Symphony, 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), and Festival delle Nazioni (Italy).

Career

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

A wide-ranging artist, Ms. Stillman is equally at home with the classical canon, new music, and Latin genres, reflected in her recordings and concert videos. She holds an MA in history from the University of Pennsylvania and is a published author on music and history, integrating scholarship with her artistic vision in projects with her hallmark, thought-provoking depth.

She founded the Dolce Suono Ensemble in Philadelphia in 2005, and serves as its Executive and Artistic director. The ensemble's commissioning program has led to the creation of 44 new works in elevenyears from composers including Richard Danielpour, David Ludwig, Steven Mackey, Shulamit Ran, and Steven Stucky. Its guest composers have included George Crumb and Ned Rorem. Among the ensemble's projects 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. The ensemble has been awarded grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and other organizations. The ensemble made its New York City debut at Symphony Space in February 2012.

Mimi Stillman's recording "Freedom" (Innova Recordings, 2015) with longtime duo pianist Charles Abramovic features premiere recordings by Richard Danielpour, David Finko, and Mieczyslaw Weinberg. Danielpour's "Remembering Neda: Trio for Flute, Cello, and Piano," on which Stillman and Abramovic are joined by regular collaborator Yumi Kendall, cello, and Finko's "Sonata for Flute and Piano," were commissioned by Stillman and her Dolce Suono Ensemble. "Freedom" also introduces Weinberg's "Five Pieces for Flute and Piano", which languished in a St. Petersberg archive since shortly after its 1947 premiere. For more information about Stillman's recording project, see her interview for Tablet Magazine's Vox podcast and "Freedom" reviewed by Jonathan S. Tobin in The New York Sun.

On the CD MIMI, Ms. 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 recordings of eleven American flute works. 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. She is on faculty at Curtis Institute of Music Summerfest and Music For All National Festival. 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,

On August 22, 2012, the 150th anniversary of Debussy's birth, she embarked on "Syrinx Journey," an ambitious project to film herself playing his solo flute work Syrinx every day for a year, filmed in 365 different locations, with each new video performance posted on line every day.

In 2013, she joined the faculty of Settlement Music School as the first-ever Distinguished Faculty Chair, chamber music coach, and lead faculty member of the school's Shirley Curtiss Center for Woodwind Studies.

Orchestrally, she has performed as substitute flutist in The Philadelphia Orchestra, and has worked 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: Theodore Presser).

Daniel Pipes and Mimi Stillman, They Had a Name for It, Jerusalem Post (5 July 2000).

Daniel Pipes and Mimi Stillman, The United States Government: Patron of Islam? Middle East Review of International Affairs 6, no. 2 (March 2002): 49-59. Reprinted in Daniel Pipes, Miltant Islam Reaches America (New York: W.W. Norton, 2003).

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, http://www.newmusicbox.org/articles/philadelphias-changing-opera-landscape/, NewMusicBox, 11 June 2012.

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 Records 814 (2011).

Jeremy Gill, Chamber Music, Albany Records 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.

External links

• Official website
• Dolce Suono Ensemble