Program Overview
Flute
The flute studio's friendly and supportive atmosphere enhances weekly private lessons, studio classes, and collaborative orchestral excerpt classes with master teacher Alexa Still. She has a worldwide reputation and decades of varied performance experience as a soloist, orchestral principal flutist, chamber musician, contemporary music specialist, and recording artist.
Associate Professor of Flute Alexa Still guides a student through a private lesson in her Bibbins Hall studio.
Photo credit: Tanya Rosen-Jones
Program Facts
- Program Type: Major, Performance Diploma, Artist Diploma
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- Bachelor of Music (BM)
- Performance Diploma (PDip)
- Artist Diploma (ADip)
- Division: Winds, Brass, and Percussion
Division Director
Alexa Still,
Professor of Flute
Quick Links
A performance by the Oberlin Contemporary Music Ensemble at Ganz Hall in Chicago.
Photo credit: Yevhen Gulenko
Time to Play
We place first-year students among returning students equally and fairly within the sections of all ensembles. We nurture them in a collaborative studio environment to inspire personal growth and development. Through orchestral, chamber music, jazz, improvisational, and historical through contemporary music for the flute, we encourage versatility and provide immense breadth of experience.
Flute Repair
Alexa Still, an authorized installer of Straubinger pads, offers a flute stripping and emergency repair course in which students are trained to make adjustments and diagnose problems themselves. They disassemble and reassemble their instruments, diagnose mechanical problems, and perform the simple “clean, oil, and adjust’’ regular maintenance that professional quality flutes require. Advanced students also have the option of working on pads. Flutes are available for loan to students whose own instruments are being repaired.
Students Aram Mun, Karisma Palmore, and Will Adams participate in the flute stripping course during winter term. They learn how to disassemble, clean and or repair flutes before reassembling them.
Photo credit: Courtesy of Alexa Still
Flute Faculty
Conservatory faculty maintain active performance schedules while remaining accessible and committed to their students. Individual instruction is paramount to helping students develop their mechanical, technical, stylistic, psychological, and musical skills.
I try to encourage my students to think about what they want to do, get them thinking on a bigger scale, and help them with all the tools they need to make themselves excellent.
Upcoming Flute Events
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Finney Chapel
Conservatory Orientation Recital
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Warner Concert Hall
Concert: Oberlin Sinfonietta
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Finney Chapel
2025-26 Senior Concerto Competition
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Warner Concert Hall
Concert: ChamberFest!
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Kulas Recital Hall, Conservatory Central Unit
Concert: ChamberFest!
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Kulas Recital Hall, Conservatory Central Unit
Concert: ChamberFest!
Master Classes
Weekly studio classes and regular master classes for the flute studio involve mock orchestral auditions, reinforcement of fundamentals, chamber music performances, solo recital performances, guest master classes, and many other types of performance opportunities. We encourage students to support their colleagues with positive and constructive feedback. Oberlin cultivates a learning environment in which students are open to making mistakes without consequence in larger public performances.
A coaching session with flute students who perform with small and large ensembles.
Photo credit: Matthew Lester
Flute News
Students Create Project That Engages Local Hospital Patients and Nursing Home Residents
Oboist Meera Bhatia ’23 and flutist Emily Nixon ’23 visited local hospital and nursing homes over the past academic year, commissioning and premiering a piece by Jeff Scott through the Gletherow-Young-Deppman Project Award.
The Making of a World Premiere: Paul Desenne’s Double Flute Concerto Has its Day in Oberlin
After a 10-year-long route to its debut, Still’s championship of this piece will be realized in a November 1 performance with conductor Raphael Jiménez leading the Oberlin Orchestra, and with her student Dylan Masariego as co-soloist.
Oberlin Music Label Releases “Wish: Music of Valerie Coleman”
Flute Professor Alexa Still collaborates with pianist Evan Hines '16 in seven works for flute written by composer Valerie Coleman—some inspired by poems of Maya Angelou and Fred D'Aguiar; album also features the readings of these poems by Oberlin's President Carmen Ambar.
Life After Oberlin
Oberlin’s flutist alumni hold major positions in orchestras, contemporary music, and in teaching positions around the world. Others in our alumni ranks choose to change the world in non-music professions.
Notable Oberlin Alumni
Hannah Hammel ’15
Principal Flute, Detroit Symphony Orchestra
Brandon Patrick George ’08
Flutist in Imani Winds
Erica Zheng ’17
Double degree graduate (Flute and Chemistry) now pursuing a PhD in the chemical biology program at Harvard Medical School