Zara Lawler

A recognized leader in the emerging field of interdisciplinary performance, flutist Zara Lawler, “an engaging, fluent, mellifluous soloist” (Houston Chronicle), made her concerto debut with the Houston Symphony and her recital debut at New York’s Merkin Concert Hall. She has collaborated with choreographers, composers and stage directors to create new and adventurous concert experiences. Highlights of the 2012–13 season include a debut recording of her duo with marimbist Paul J. Fadoul, the premiere of a new Kinderkonzert program developed with Fadoul for the Kennedy Center, and two commissions of sets of preludes for flute and marimba by composers Katherine Hoover and Roshanne Etezady.

Lawler’s interdisciplinary performances, in which she plays, dances, and acts, have been created in collaboration with choreographer C. Neil Parsons, stage director Gary Race, and composers Randall Woolf, Jerome Kitzke, and Alla Borzova. Her piece E Pluribus Flutum, for up to 60 dancing flutists, was premiered at the National Flute Association’s Annual Convention in 2011. For many years, Lawler was the flutist and co-artistic director of Tales & Scales, an innovative ensemble for children and family audiences that integrated contemporary classical music with dance and theater, “an enthrallingly visual and acoustic joy” (New Music Connoisseur). Tales & Scales performed in the Kennedy Center, the Kravis Center, TriBeca Performing Arts Center, and the Orange County Performing Arts Center and with the Atlanta, Utah, Indianapolis, and Oregon symphonies and the Buffalo Philharmonic.

Lawler has appeared as a soloist with the Houston Symphony and the Hong Kong Philharmonic and given solo recitals in New York, Santa Barbara, Hong Kong, and throughout the Midwest. She spent two summers at the Marlboro School of Music and has been a guest artist with eighth blackbird. Her critically acclaimed duo Lawler & Fadoul was in residence in 2011–12 at Yellow Barn in Vermont and is an In-School Ensemble for the National Symphony Orchestra.

Lawler has taught workshops on interdisciplinary performance at Indiana University Jacob’s School of Music, the Eastman School of Music, and Rutgers University, as well as at the National Flute Association’s Annual Convention. Her blog, www.thepracticenotebook.com, addresses principles and techniques of good music practice.

Lawler earned her master’s degree from the Juilliard School, where she studied with Carol Wincenc and Sam Baron. Among competitions she has won are the Ima Hogg Young Artist Competition, Artists’ International, and the New York Flute Club. She has performed at Tanglewood, Banff Festival of the Arts, Bach Aria Festival and Institute, and the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival.

Manhattan School of Music Precollege faculty since 2012.