Tracy Harris
Biography
Tracy Harris has been a Yamaha Performing Flute/Piccolo Artist and clinician for the past 14 years. She is a highly sought after soloist, chamber musician, flute clinician and author. In addition to a thriving worldwide SKYPE studio, Tracy teaches students from all over the state of California and she is now the master flute teacher at the College of the Sequoias. Performing nationally and internationally, Ms. Harris gives numerous solo performances, chamber recitals, clinics, flute boots, and master classes. She has soloed with symphony orchestras from the Santa Barbara Symphony to the Pacific Coast Symphony and has held many first chair positions including the Santa Maria Symphony, the Pacific Coast Symphony and the West Coast Symphony. She is currently Alto Flutist and Substitute Principal Flutist with the Tulare Symphony.
Ms. Harris is the Artistic Director and Founder of the popular "Tracy Harris Flute Boot Camps" which help over a thousand flutists each year, as well as The Wyndfall Chamber Music Series that performs to sold-out audiences each season. Ms. Harris is the author of the recently published "The Flute Boot Camp Manual - A Universal Guide to Flute and Piccolo" (2015 recipient of the Editor's Choice and Paul Revere Awards) published by Wingert-Jones as well as her own custom designed fingering and trill charts also published by Wingert-Jones. Most recently, her co-publication of The Lyric Flutist with her brother Todd Harris, was released in 2015.
Ms. Harris records on the Elite Source Label, and her CD "Iroquois Suite", features works by Herman Beeftink, major motion picture composer for such films as The Simpsons Movie and Lions for Lambs. Her latest albums "Eklectick" and "The Lyric Flutist", recorded with her duo partner Svetlana Rudikova-Harris and flutist Ramakrishnan Kumaran, have won critical acclaim and feature classics, new arrangements and compositions written by herself and Dr. Todd Harris.
Ms. Harris studied on scholarship at The New England Conservatory of Music with Claude Monteux and on scholarship at the University of California, Santa Barbara with Jill Felber where she received her B.M. in Flute Performance in 1991 with high honors. Ms. Harris has also been a student of Julius Baker, Jim Walker, and Ann Giles. Ms. Harris has received Performance Grants from organizations such as The Pillsbury Foundation, The National Arts and Letters Society, The Scandinavian Foundation, and The Santa Barbara Foundation. Ms. Harris is also the winner of the San Francisco International Flute Festival Flute Soloist Competition held in 2010. Ms. Harris has judged local, state and international soloist competitions as well as band and orchestral competitions for over 10 years for organizations such as CBDA, CMEA, and TKMEA and has had numerous students win local, state and national competitions such as CBDA All-State, NAfME, and YoungArts and have been finalists at NFA high school soloist competitions as well. Most recently her student won the 2015 NFA Young Artist Competition - the youngest ever to do so. Tracy has students studying on scholarship from Vanderbilt to UCLA and regularly has students accepted at the top conservatories such as New England Conservatory of Music and Carnegie Mellon.
Ms. Harris also has students that occupy chairs in professional symphony orchestras and wind ensembles throughout the U.S.
Ms. Harris has performed on NPR, The Infinite Mind, and at NFA conventions and had 3 proposals selected for the NFA convention in Chicago 2014 where she conducted a showcase with her flute orchestra "Wyndfall", and performed solo works from one of her latest albums. She also presented her newly published and well-received book "The Flute Boot Manual". Ms. Harris was recently selected to present at NAfME's 2015 National In-Service Conference in October in Nashville, Tennessee and has also been invited to perform at the NFA Convention in Washington D.C. to perform with Ali Ryerson and the Low Flutes Ensemble. Ms. Harris has also performed, presented and conducted at the Mid-South Flute Festival in 2014, was a featured guest artist at Jill Felber's Flute Summit at UCSB in Santa Barbara 2014. Additionally Tracy has been a guest artist/performer at The Boston Flute Academy, featured presenter at Delaware State Music Day in 2014, guest artist at Boston College, University of the Redlands, Cal State Bakersfield's Flute Day, performed and presented at San Francisco International Flute Festival 2014, The Coastal Flute Society, The Central Valley Flute Society and appeared with her publisher at the Midwest Clinic in 2014, NAFME 2015 and CASMEC 2016 to name but a few appearances of late.
Ms. Harris is the founder of The Tracy Harris Flute Master Class series and since 2003 has worked with notables such as Jim Walker, Tadeu Coelho, Mary Karen Clardy, Jill Felber, Piccolo legend Nicola Mazzanti (see her performance with Nicola on YouTube of "Two Swans Swimming", and more. As the Artistic Director for the Wyndfall Conservatory, Ms. Harris teaches flute, piccolo and low flutes and is in the award winning Wyndfall Trio with Concert Pianist Svetlana Rudikova-Harris and Concert Harpist Wendy LeBlanc. Ms. Harris is also the Music Director for The Wyndfall Flute Orchestra which has performed at NFA conventions and was just awarded its second showcase and performed at the 2016 NFA Convention.
Ms. Harris plays on a Yamaha C Flute Custom 14K Rose Gold 977 AHSTCT
Yamaha Piccolo - YPC-81 with a Wave Head
Yamaha Alto Flute
Yamaha Bass Flute - YFL B441II
