April Clayton

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.