April Clayton
ADJUNCTSAdjunct
Music
Email: aclayton@westminsteru.edu
About
April Clayton is in high demand as soloist, recording artist, chamber musician, orchestral
player and pedagogue. She performs regularly around the world, including annual recitals
in Europe.
She is the professor of flute at Brigham Young University, where she received tenure
at age 31. In 2010, she was the recipient of a coveted Brigham Young University Young
Scholar Award, becoming only the second music faculty member to receive this honor
in its decades-long history. Ms. Clayton is a Williams Flutes Artist, and performs
on a white and rose gold flute made for her by the Williams Flutes Company.
Performing and teaching internationally
Ms. Clayton has performed as soloist and chamber artist in London, Zurich, Paris,
Riva del Garda, Leipzig, Moscow, Vancouver, New York City, and throughout South Korea,
Mexico and the United States. She has been in residence for the XIX Seminários Internacionais
de Musica at the Federal University of Bahia in Brazil, at the Holder’s Season Festival
in Barbados, on the Wells Cathedral Concert Series, and at the Aberystwyth Music Festival
in Wales. For seven years, she was director of chamber music for the European American
Musical Alliance. As such, Ms. Clayton worked in Paris alongside members of the faculty
of Juilliard, the Paris Conservatory and Ecole Normale de Musique, and other elite
schools. During the fall of 2007, she was a guest artist instructor at the Conservatoire
MJC du Vesinet and the Centre de Musique F. Hasselmann in France. She continues her
international performance and educational endeavors each summer through the Da Capo
Alliance.
Award-winning soloist and peforming artist
Accolades for Ms. Clayton’s solo performances from the New York Concert Review, Fanfare,
American Record Guide, and Flute Talk magazine describe her playing using such terms
as “stunning,” “dazzling,” “impeccable,” “[played] with total conviction,” “outstanding,”
“thoroughly polished,” “beguiling,” “superb,” “elegant,” and “delectable.”
She was featured in a 2009 cover story by Flute Talk magazine as a leading flutist
of her generation. Ms. Clayton presented her 2003 debut solo recital in New York’s
Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall as a winner of the Artists’ International Competition.
As a young flutist, she was the winner of many competitions, including Jefferson Symphony
Young Artist, MTNA, and Cincinnati Philharmonia Concerto Competition, among others.
Her debut solo CD, Flûte Agréable, was released on the Crystal Records label in 2005.
Having performed at numerous National Flute Association conventions, she was featured
by the NFA in a “Generation X All-Stars” concert in San Diego. She has performed as
concerto soloist with several orchestras in Utah, Ohio, New York, New Jersey, and
Colorado.
Chosen performer for premieres of new music
A dedicated performer of new music, Ms. Clayton has participated in numerous world
premieres. Her CD of flute concertos, Flute Horizons, was released on the Tantara
Label in August 2012, and features two new concertos that were written for her by
Todd Coleman and Murray Boren. Through her performances in Paris, New York, and elsewhere,
she has collaborated with a long list of composers, including Narcis Bonet, Robert
Dick, Lance Horne, Harold Meltzer, Michel Merlet, Bernard Rands, David del Tredici,
and numerous others. In 2008, she was invited to present what became a highly acclaimed
concert of premieres in Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall. Among four competition prizes
received from the National Flute Association are two “Best Performance” awards for
renditions of newly commissioned compositions. Ms. Clayton received a full fellowship
to the Aspen Music Festival as flutist with the Aspen Contemporary Ensemble. She toured
internationally with the New Juilliard Ensemble, has performed in the Summergarden
Concert Series at the Museum of Modern Art in Manhattan, and in Lincoln Center’s Focus!
Festival for New Music.
Integral member of music groups
Ms. Clayton is a member of the Orpheus Wind Quintet, a leading woodwind quintet in
the Intermountain West. She has been principal flute with the Utah Chamber Artists
since 2005, and often performs with Ballet West and the Utah Symphony. She has toured
as a guest with the New York Woodwind Quintet. She often works with dynamic piano
duo partner Jed Moss of Salt Lake City, who was formerly a member of the band Air
Supply. She is also flutist with the New York-based flute, viola, and harp trio Hat
Trick. Ms. Clayton was formerly principal flute and concerto soloist with the New
York Lyric Orchestra, and also played principal flute with The Jupiter Symphony, the
National Repertory Orchestra, and at the Sarasota Music Festival.
Recognized student, honored professor
Ms. Clayton was a National Merit Scholar at Oberlin College and Conservatory, studying
flute performance and mathematics. She subsequently graduated with her B.M. (summa
cum laude) and M.M. degrees from the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music at the
University of Cincinnati. At The Juilliard School, she was a Starr Doctoral Fellow
and the youngest student to have been admitted to the D.M.A. program. She is a member
of American Mensa.
Students garner recognition, move into valued positions
Dr. Clayton’s students have laid claim to many honors, awards, and professional positions
in their own right. Several have been winners of National Flute Association competitions,
including the Flute and Piccolo Masterclass competitions and the Orchestra Audition
Competition and Masterclass (First Place). They have been winners of many other state,
regional, and national competitions, including Utah Flute Association, Music Teachers’
National Association, San Francisco Flute Festival, Areon Flute Festival, and others.
They have been accepted into top undergraduate and graduate music programs, including
those at Arizona State University, Boston Conservatory, Boston University, Brigham
Young University, Colburn, University of Colorado at Boulder and Denver, University
of Michigan, University of Nevada-Las Vegas, University of North Texas, Rutgers, and
University of Southern California. Her former students now teach at BYU-Idaho, Michigan
State University, and Boston University. They have performed with orchestras, including
the Tucson Symphony, Utah Symphony, Portland Ensign Orchestra, Salt Lake Symphony,
Utah Valley Symphony, and Orchestra at Temple Square. Many maintain their own private
studios across the country, and are leaders in their music communities.
