Robert Bigio flute pages
Articles on the flute
Christopher Steward’s early flute recordings
Leonardo De Lorenzo
Leonardo De Lorenzo (1875–1962) was born in Italy
and moved to America in 1909, where he was
immediately successful. He became first flute in the
New York Philharmonic in 1910 when Gustav Mahler
was the conductor, before moving to the New York
Symphony Orchestra, where for three years he
alternated with Georges Barrère as first flute. He later
had tenures as first flute in orchestras in Minneapolis,
Los Angeles and Rochester. He also became professor
of flute at the Eastman School of Music, where one of
his students was Julius Baker.
De Lorenzo was a prolific composer, producing solo
and chamber music and some extraordinarily
challenging studies for the flute. Throughout his life he
kept notes of matters relating to the flute and to flute
players, which he used as the basis for his book My
Complete Story of the Flute, first published in 1951 and
reissued in a revised edition in 1992 by the American
National Flute Association and Texas Tech University
Press (ISBN 0-89672-277-5).
De Lorenzo’s life and work is discussed in detail (in
Italian, with abstracts in English, French and German)
in Gian-Luca Petrucci’s book Leonardo De Lorenzo: da
Viggiano a Los Angeles fra tradizione e avanguardia. (Edizioni
L’Antissa, Viggiano.)
We are grateful to Gian-Luca Petrucci for making available the photograph and recording of Leonardo De
Lorenzo.
Griffes: Poem. Leonardo De Lorenzo, flute;
Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra; Howard
Hanson, conductor. Recorded 1934.
