Berlin Philharmonic Appoints New Principal Flute

Icelandic flautist Stefán Ragnar Höskuldsson will step into the role

The Berliner Philharmoniker has announced that the Icelandic flautist Stefán Ragnar Höskuldsson will serve as its new Principal Flute. The orchestra has two Principal Flute positions, the second of which is currently held by Emmanuel Pahud.

Currently principal flute of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Höskuldsson is also a distinguished international soloist and chamber musician. He arrived in Chicago in 2015 and was appointed by Riccardo Muti. Prior to this, he served as principal flute of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra from 2008 to 2016.

Höskuldsson has appeared throughout the United States, Europe, and Japan under the direction of conductors such as Fabio Luisi, Valery Gergiev, Daniel Barenboim, Seiji Ozawa, Esa-Pekka Salonen, and Riccardo Muti. He is often featured as a soloist, and in 2009 he took a particularly notable solo role in Pierre Boulez’s Mémoriale-Explosant Fixe.

Other solo engagements include performances at the Pacific Music Festival in Sapporo, Japan; concerts with the Iceland Symphony Orchestra; recitals at the Galway International Flute Festival in Lucerne; and a live radio broadcast with BBC Radio 3’s In Tune program in London.

He has given master classes at the Juilliard School, Manhattan School of Music and Mannes College of Music in New York and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and the Royal Academy of Music in London. In addition, he is on faculty of DePaul University School of Music.

A graduate of Iceland's Reykjavík School of Music and the UK's Royal Northern College of Music, Höskuldsson has studied with Bernhard Wilkinson and Peter Lloyd.