Linda Pereksta

Linda Pereksta joined the faculty of The University of Mississippi in 2007, where she teaches flute and plays in the faculty woodwind quintet. Prior to her appointment, she was a member of the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra and taught flute at Tulane University and music history at the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts (NOCCA). During her tenure with the LPO, she performed in the orchestra's joint concert with the New York Philharmonic, playing under the batons of James Conlon, Leonard Slatkin and Lorin Maazel. She can also be heard with the two orchestras on the CD Our New Orleans, accompanying Randy Newman.

Dr. Pereksta has performed in a flute and clarinet duo for over ten years with fellow UM faculty member Michael Rowlett, most recently under the name Doubled Air. They serve on the board of directors of the Flute/Clarinet Duos Consortium, an organization that commissions new compositions for this combination of instruments. Together, they have appeared in concerts throughout the United States, and recently performed at the International Clarinet Association's ClarinetFest in Vancouver, British Columbia.

Formerly a member of the Memphis and Greenville (SC) Symphony Orchestras, Dr. Pereksta has appeared with Mallarmé Chamber Players, Grammy-nominated jazz artist Nnenna Freelon, Baroque Southeast, Fiori Musicali, Tallahassee Bach Parley, the Iowa Center for New Music and the North Carolina Symphony Orchestra. As a doctoral fellow at Florida State University, she directed the baroque ensemble and taught recorder and baroque flute. Twice a major prizewinner in the National Flute Association's baroque flute artist competition, she has served as coordinator of the competition and is now Chair of the NFA's historical flutes committee. Her doctoral treatise, "20th-Century Compositions for Baroque Flute," was a winner in the 2004 NFA call for DM/PhD papers.

Dr. Pereksta holds degrees from The University of Iowa, The Peabody Conservatory of Music of The Johns Hopkins University, and Florida State University. Her flute teachers have included Betty Bang Mather, Christopher Krueger, Leone Buyse, Charles DeLaney and Robert Willoughby. She studied orchestral conducting and literature with the late James Dixon.

• Studio syllabus (PDF)
• Flutes Are Fun! (harpsong.org)