Barbara Hopkins

Award winning flutist Barbara Hopkins enjoys national recognition for her performances. She has released three educational CDs including Telemann Methodical Sonatas Vol. 1, Short Concert Pieces for Flute and Piano, and Andersen Etudes, opus 15. Flute Talk magazine recommends her Andersen CD, writing, “Hopkins plays these virtuoso etudes with taste and a technical ease that many students work for years to never achieve,” and The Flute Network praised her Telemann recording as, “full, rich, and highly musical.” It was while teaching at Hartt Community Division that she conceived the idea for her first CD, Short Concert Pieces for Flute and Piano, when she realized her students needed to hear the repertoire that she was teaching and that much of it had never been recorded.

Dr. Hopkins has 25 years of teaching experience at all levels, including Hartt Community Division, University of Connecticut, Stony Brook University, and Marywood University. Her teaching emphasizes developing solid musicianship, technique, and problem solving skills in a positive and supportive atmosphere. Her students have won competitions sponsored by the Music Teachers National Association, National Flute Association, Greater Boston Flute Association, and the University of Connecticut; many are successfully teaching in the public schools. She has served as Assistant Principal Flutist of the Hartford Symphony Orchestra since 1993. Other orchestras she has performed with include the Minnesota Orchestra, Buffalo Philharmonic, and Sarasota Orchestra.

A cousin of nineteenth century Connecticut flute maker Asa Hopkins, Barbara is very interested in early flutes and music. She has acquired several flutes by Asa Hopkins, and has had them restored to playing condition. She founded The Rosewood Chamber Ensemble with guitarist Judy Handler, which specializes in concerts of early music performed on period instruments. The Greater Boston Flute Association Gazette wrote of their Boston concert, “The pieces were played with style and joy, resulting in a captivating performance.” Their first CD, Songs and Dances of Early America, will be released this year.

Barbara was first prize winner in the National Flute Association Orchestral Audition Competition, has been a top prize winner in the New York Flute Club Young Artist Competition, and was awarded a fellowship to Tanglewood Music Center, where she had the honor of playing principal flute under Leonard Bernstein.

Dr. Hopkins received her Doctor of Musical Arts degree from Stony Brook University, where she studied with Samuel Baron. She earned her Master of Music from The Mannes College of Music under Thomas Nyfenger, and her Bachelor of Music at The Hartt School with John Wion. Always seeking to refine her skills, she has also studied piccolo with Geralyn Coticone of the Boston Symphony, new music with Robert Dick, and Baroque flute with Na’ama Lion.