The University of Washington's article about Felix

Felix Skowronek, Professor of Flute, 1935-2006


Felix Skowronek, professor of flute at the University of Washington School of Music since 1968, a founding member of the Soni Ventorum Woodwind Quintet, and the leading promoter of the revival of the wooden Boehm-system concert flute in the United States, died Monday evening, April 17, 2006 in Seattle.

Born August 21, 1935, Seattle native Felix Skowronek received a BM degree in Flute Performance from the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, where he studied flute with William Kincaid and chamber music with Marcel Tabuteau. He returned to Seattle, where he was principal flute with the Seattle Symphony for two seasons, interspersed with military service with the U.S. Seventh Army Symphony Orchestra in Germany.

In 1960, Skowronek was invited to be instructor of flute at the Conservatory of Music of Puerto Rico, newly founded by Pablo Casals, and with fellow faculty members he formed the Soni Ventorum Wind Quintet in 1962. During his six years in Puerto Rico, he also served as principal flute with the Orquestra Sinfonica de Puerto Rico and performed as a member of the Casals Festival Orchestra.

From 1966-68, he was principal flute with the St. Louis Symphony before rejoining Soni Ventorum at the University of Washington, where the ensemble was engaged as the woodwind instrument faculty of the School of Music. Skowronek toured extensively with Soni Ventorum in South America and Europe under the auspices of the U.S. State Department, and throughout the United States, before the ensemble disbanded in 2001. He was an instructor and ensemble coach with the National Youth Orchestra of Canada, the Banff Centre for the Arts, and Marrowstone Music Festival, as well as serving as a regular sectional coach for the Seattle Youth Symphony. In 2001, he was invited to be an adjudicator for the Ville d’Avray International Flute Competition held in Paris, France. In 2002, Skowronek performed and presented master classes at the XVII Seminarios Internacionais de Música in Salvador, Brazil.

In 1979, he was named Founding President of the Seattle Flute Society, and retained this position for three years. He also served as a board member and as Vice-President. In addition, he was National Flute Association president, chairman of the board, board member, and program chairman of the 10th anniversary convention.

From 1982-91, and again from 1999 to the present, he was Music Director of Belle Arte Concerts, a professional chamber music series in Bellevue with performers drawn from the ranks of local, regional, national, and international artists.

At the UW School of Music, Skowronek served for many years as chairman of the Concerts Committee and was head of the Orchestral Instruments Division. He was Associate Director for Performance and Public Affairs from 1994-96. He served as a member of the School of Music Visiting Committee, as well as teaching undergraduate and graduate flute performance majors and music majors, and coaching flute and chamber ensembles.

Skowronek has been the leading promoter of the revival of the wooden Boehm-system concert flute in the United States. Through his research, particularly in Australia, he became an authority on the use of new foreign and domestic hardwood species for flute and woodwind instrument manufacture. His experimental flute headjoints, made from a variety of these species, have been heard in Seattle and elsewhere in the United States. Most recently, he was a consultant with the noted Boston flutemakers Verne Q. Powell, Inc., in their project to reintroduce the wooden flute on a substantial basis by an American manufacturer. Skowronek gave a series of lecture-recitals in the United States, Germany, and Puerto Rico, illustrating the specialized applications of several of his headjoints made from researched Australian species.

Source: http://www.music.washington.edu/faculty/index.php?pg=news_detail_box&ID=20, accessed April 21, 2006.