“...extreme adventurousness… riveted with her performance, inspiring one to want a repeated hearing.”(New York Concert Review)
Brooklyn-based flutist Roberta Michel is dedicated to the music of our time. She has commissioned and premiered hundreds of new works and has worked with many notable composers of our day. Roberta is the flutist and Co-Director of Wavefield Ensemble and is a member of Da Capo Chamber Players, PinkNoise, and Duo RoMi.
Roberta has also performed with: Art Ensemble of Chicago, Cadillac Moon Ensemble (founding member), SEM Ensemble, Bang on a Can All-Stars, Ecce Ensemble, Portland String Quartet, Newspeak, Wet Ink Ensemble, Argento, Iktus, Wordless Music Orchestra, Ensemble LPR, and Cygnus Ensemble among others. Recent venues include: Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, Alice Tulley Hall, Merkin Hall, The Kennedy Center, Roulette, Issue Project Room, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. She can be heard on New Focus, Chandos, Innova, Tzadik, Bridge, Wide Hive, New Dynamic, and Meta Records. She played on the 2021 GRAMMY-winning album of Dame Ethyl Smyth’s The Prison with Experiential Orchestra. Her recently released solo album Hush, on New Focus Recordings, “digs deep into the possibilities of flute on this gripping solo recital.”
Originally from Maine, Roberta attended the University of Colorado at Boulder and SUNY-Purchase College and has studied with Robert Dick, Tara O’Connor, Alexa Still, and Jean Rosenblum. She holds a doctorate in music performance from the City University of New York Graduate Center and is a winner of the NFA Graduate Research Competition for her dissertation on the flute music of Salvatore Sciarrino.
Roberta currently teaches flute at Sarah Lawrence College, Brooklyn College, and music courses at St. Francis College and maintains a private music studio in Brooklyn. She plays a Brannen flute with a Mancke headjoint.
Roberta’s solo album Hush here is available here.
Praise for Hush
“The flute playing on Hush is top-notch. Michel’s versatile tone and nimble embouchure make possible a wide range of complicated extended techniques, which feature heavily throughout the album…Hush is a beautifully-crafted and considered album from top to bottom, and it’s exciting to see a powerhouse performer like Michel championing, commissioning, and recording so much new music and sharing it with audiences in such a comprehensively competent way.” — Chrysanthe Tan, I Care if you Listen
“Roberta Michel, a co-founder of New York’s Wavefield Ensemble, digs deep into the possibilities of flute on this gripping solo recital.” — Peter Margasak, The Best Contemporary Classical Music on Bandcamp, November 2024
“The flutist’s exquisitely modulated technique and questing spirit are exemplified by and for you, castles, Victoria Cheah’s haunting piece for flute and electronics. But dip in anywhere among these five tracks (other composers are Jane Rigler, Jen Baker, Mert Morali, and Angélica Negrón) for an immersion in Michel’s interests on her first solo album.” — Jeremy Shatan, AnEarful
“Michel is a spectacular flutist, outfitted with a remarkably flexible technique, an adventurous spirit, and unflagging enthusiasm for her art.” — Huntley Dent, Fanfare
Albums
