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ELENA DURAN, flute
Elena Durán was born to a Mexican-American family in East Oakland and studied with Darius Milhaud at Mills College before being appointed Lecturer in Flute at Stanford University at the age of twenty.
After two years she resigned her post at Stanford to resume her studies in Europe, studying with Jean Pierre Rampal and Andras Adorjan in Nice, Alain Marion in Paris, Aurèle Nicolet in Friberg-im-Breisgau and with James Galway in Berlin and Rochester.
She spent two years as James Galway's assistant, editing his music, writing his books and helping to produce his recordings. After this, using London as her base, Elena spent the following years developing a concert career which has taken her all over Europe, the Far East, Australasia, South America and Mexico.
She has made concerto appearances and recordings with many major orchestras including the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the English Chamber Orchestra, Bournemouth Sinfonietta, the Moscow Virtuosi and the National Symphony Orchestra of Mexico.
She has also played regularly for all the of the members of the British Royal family including two televised Royal Galas from the Royal Albert Hall in London. She has twice had the honour of appearing before Queen Elizabeth II.
In the United States, Elena has played with such orchestras as the Oakland East Bay Symphony, the San Diego Symphony, San Antonio Symphony, The Monterey Symphony, The Inland Empire Symphony in San Bernardino and the Flint Symphony, Michigan.
She has given recitals and master classes widely and in 2002 was Resident Professor at the Hartt School of Music, Hartford CT. In Mexico she has appeared regularly with virtually every major orchestra and in every major Festival.
She has appeared frequently on television and radio in many countries and has had her own popular radio programme in Mexico "La Flauta Mágica" and recently presented a very successful series of programmes on Classical FM in the UK under the title of "Music of the Americas". Amongst Elena's many recordings, she has recorded Delius with Eric Fenby, Bach with Vladimir Spivkov, two albums with the legendary jazz-violinist Stephane Grappelli and a chart-topping single and video with Paul MacCartney. Her best selling album, however, is "Viva Elena!" a collection of music from Mexico and South America.
Her most recent CD is "Nostalgia for Mexico", a wonderful selection of Mexican salon music transcribed for flute and piano. She has also published more than a dozen collections of music for flute including her four latest for Schott Music: "Gemstone", "Signs of the Zodiac", "Around the World" and "Mexican Dances for Two Flutes".
In the early nineties, Elena lived in Mexico for five years, during which time she became one of the best known musicians in the country. She also founded the Mexican Flute Society and the annual Mexican Flute Festival. For almost twenty years Elena has been artistic director of the International Flute Festival in Stratford-upon-Avon, the largest annual flute festival in Europe.
At this moment, Elena divides her time between Mexico City, Stratford-upon-Avon and the USA. She is currently working on two major projects FLAUTA SIN FRONTERAS, a month-long tour along the US-Mexican Border and MEXICO DE MI CORAZON a major TV/DVD production which will be released early in 2007.
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