Martha Councell-Vargas

Mead Witter School of Music Guest Artist Series. $15.

media release:

Martha Councell-Vargas, flute; Ann DuHamel, piano

Martha Councell-Vargas enjoys an exhilarating career as a solo and chamber flutist, teaching artist, and scholar. She has performed as a soloist and chamber musician in Central and South America, Europe, China, and across the United States.

With a scholarly and artistic specialization in the music of Latin America and the Caribbean, she has been featured as a guest artist in the Festival Internacional de Flautistas in Lima, Peru; the Convención Internacional de Flautistas en el Centro del Mundo (Quito, Ecuador); in Panamá City, Panamá under the auspices of the Asociación Nacionál de Conciertos; in Tegucigalpa, Honduras at the Escuela Nacional de Música; and in Buenos Aires, Argentina. She was recently featured as guest teaching artist at the first annual Seminario de Pedagogia e Interpretacion en la Flauta Traversa, which took place at the Conservatorio Nacional de Colombia (Bogotá).

In 2011, Councell-Vargas received a grant to travel to Havana, Cuba, where she researched the Cuban flute tradition, research that was inspired by her study, performance, and doctoral scholarship on Paquito D’Rivera’s flute concerto, Gran Danzón. This research was subsequently published in the Flutist Quarterly, Journal of the National Flute Association.

Councell-Vargas is a top prizewinner in several national competitions, including the National Flute Association's Young Artist Competition, Frank Bowen Flute Competition in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and the Flute Talk Competition in Chicago.