Arts Global

Flautist Prema Kesselman is Principal Flute with the Orquesta Filarmónica de Santiago, Chile (Santiago Philharmonic Orchestra). As first prize winner of the Malcolm Arnold Concerto Prize, she made her professional concerto debut with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Tolga Kashif on 3 June 2007 performing Malcolm Arnold's Flute Concerto No. 2. She also presented a New York solo recital debut at Weill Recital Hall, Carnegie Hall in 2005, which The New York Concert Review wrote "Ms. Kesselman handled it all with assurance and a cool and focused tone… rock solid and note perfect... limpid and beautiful... a fluid and tight-ensembled performance... The final chord brought a standing ovation and an encore."

Ms Kesselman gave the South American premiere performance of the Flute Concerto by Christopher Rouse in August 2009 in Viña del Mar, Chile at the Aula Magna Concert Hall at the Universidad Técnica Federico Santa María, with the Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional Juvenil, Chile and conductor, José Luis Domínguez. 

Ms Kesselman began her musical training in Los Angeles, California, where she attended the Colburn School of Performing Arts. Since her concerto debut at the age of fifteen, she has performed as soloist with orchestra ten times and has garnered prizes and awards from over twenty state, national and international competitions. She received a Bachelor of Music in Flute Performance, summa cum laude at Temple University-Boyer College of Music in Philadelphia where she studied flute with David Cramer and was awarded the Max Aronoff Prize, President's Scholar Award, Presser Scholar Award and 1st prize in the Annual Soloist Competition.

She completed a Postgraduate Advanced Diploma (PGA) with distinction, sponsored by the Derek Butler Trust, and a Master of Music (MMus) in Flute Performance Studies, sponsored by the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation, at Trinity College of Music (TCM) studying flute with Wissam Boustany. Her MMus dissertation titled "Poem by Charles Tomlinson Griffes: An Analysis and a New Version" and her final recital received a distinction from their respective juries, which included William Bennett, Geoffrey Govier and Victoria Soames Samek. Ms Kesselman was awarded the Friends of New York TCM London Prize for her outstanding performance achievements and won the Gold Medal Prize in 2007, the College's highest award for solo performance. She was also awarded the 2008 Worshipful Company of Musicians' Silver Medal for Excellence in Performance. Ms Kesselman took part in mentor schemes with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Academy of St. Martin in the Fields and Chamber Orchestra of Europe. Previous flute teachers include Nadine Asin, Peter Lloyd, Karen Lundgren, Cathy Ransom and Anne Diener Zentner.

Ms Kesselman was awarded 1st Place in the 2006 Sigma Alpha Iota Graduate Performance Awards National Competition in Orlando, Florida. Her solo performances have been broadcast on Los Angeles's KUSC 91.5 FM "Sundays at Four" and on WorldSpace digital satellite radio network throughout four continents. In addition, she performed in the Aspen Music Festival and Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, and in the following prestigious venues: Academy of Music and Kimmel Center - Philadelphia, Dorothy Chandler Pavilion and Herbert Zipper Concert Hall - Los Angeles, Sai Kulwant Hall, Prashanti Nilayam - India, Sydney Opera House - Australia and the Toronto Centre for the Arts - Canada.

Highlights of Ms Kesselman's recent concert schedule included a performance of the Bach Triple Concerto at the Bach Festival of Philadelphia and solo recitals at the Hampstead and Highgate Festival-Lauderdale House, Bath Recital Artists' Trust Series - The Pump Room, St. Martin in the Fields and a concerto performance with the Orquesta Sinfónica de la Universidad de La Serena, Chile. She was Principal Flute in the Young Janacek Philharmonic and performed with them at the 2006 and 2007 Cantiere Internazionale d'Arte di Montepulciano, Italy and Festival International des Musiques D'Aujourd'Hui Strasbourg. She also performed solo flute/piccolo/alto flute in the national premiere production of Benjamin Britten's chamber opera The Turn of the Screw in Santiago, Chile. Ms Kesselman was previously 2nd Flute with Haddonfield Symphony and substitute flute with the New World Symphony and performed under the batons of Daniel Hege, Daniel Lewis, Otto-Werner Mueller, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Leonard Slatkin and David Zinman.

As Principal Flute in the Metropolitan Sinfonia she performed the World Premiere of a Concerto in Two Movements by renowned American composer Maurice Wright at St George's Bristol in 2007 and its London premiere at St. John's Smith Square in 2008. Ms Kesselman's performance was broadcast on the weekly radio show "Discoveries From The Fleisher Collection" on WRTI-FM in Philadelphia in 2009.

Ms Kesselman is Flute Professor at the Universidad Mayor, Conservatorio deMusica in Santiago, Chile.

More information about Ms Kesselman can be found at www.premakesselman.com.