Nina Flyer - Cellist

“ Teaching at it's highest level is all about personalization. There is no cookie cutter approach to teaching any student of any age or level. First of all I have to connect with the student, then I have to evaluate their strengths or weaknesses on the instrument. Finally I prioritize what needs to be taught and in what order, finding exercises or pieces that will fill in the gaps.”

Profile

Nina Flyer was a lecturer in cello and chamber music at the University of the Pacific Conservatory of Music since 1997 to 2017. While there she founded the New Pacific Trio, which subsequently became Trio 180. She was also a lecturer in Cello at Cal State East Bay and taught at the Reykjavik School of Music. She holds a B.M. from the University of Southern California and has also studied at the Eastman School of Music and the Vienna Academy of Music. Her major teachers include Ronald Leonard, Gabor Rejto, Vladmir Orloff and Frank Miller. Ms. Flyer has been principal cellist of the Jerusalem Symphony, the Iceland Symphony, the Bergen (Norway) Symphony, acting principal in the San Diego Symphony, and principal of the Women's Philharmonic. She is currently principal cello of the Pacific Chamber Symphony. She performs on a regular basis with the San Francisco Symphony and records for the TV and Motion Picture Industry. Ms. Flyer is an active and touring solo and chamber music performer both in the U.S. and abroad. She has an established reputation for playing contemporary music and performs with Composer's Inc. and the San Francisco Contemporary Players. She is featured on two CD's that have been nominated for Grammys. One CD features a cello work by Shulamit Ran, recorded with the English Chamber Orchestra, and the other CD includes two cello suites by Lou Harrison. The following quote is from Strings Magazine in 2001: ..........hauntingly beautiful performance............ (Lou Harrison CD review) Another of Ms. Flyer's CD's, featuring original and arranged works for cello and piano and narrated by David Ogden Stiers won the Oppenheim Toy Portfolio, Best Audio of 2010 award. She recorded a piece called “Flyer”, for cello and orchestra, composed by Allan Crossman and dedicated to her, with the North/South Consonance in New York; the CD was released in 2008. Trio 180 came out with their first CD in the fall of 2015 which includes trios by Dvorak and Schumann.

Ms. Flyer is a member of the American Federation of Musicians, American String Teachers Association, Chamber Music America, and Pi Kappa Lambda.

Recordings

	Trio 180 by Nina Flyer, Ann Miller, Sonia Leong
	Ferdinand the Bull and Friends David Ogden Stiers (Narrator), Nina Flyer (cello), Chie Nagatani (piano), Mark Fish (composer/arranger), Munro Leaf (Author), Robert Lawson (Author), Camille Saint Saëns (composer), Ogden Nash (Author), Devin Bernard (Author), Maurice Ravel (composer)
	Lou Harrison: Suite for Violin by Nina Flyer, Lou Harrison, James Sedares, Dan Levitan, and New Zealand Symphony Orchestra
	Many Moons by Nina Flyer, Thalia Moore, Anthony Striplen, Carey Bell, and Cornelius Boots SF Chronicle review
	Shulamit Ran: Three Fantasy Movements / String Quartet No. 1 / Nadia Boulanger: Three pieces for cello & piano by Nina Flyer, Nadia Boulanger, Shulamit Ran, JoAnn Falletta, and English Chamber Orchestra
	The Women's Philharmonic: Fanny Mendelssohn: Overture (c. 1830) / C. Schumann: Piano Concerto in A Minor, Op. 7 / G. Tailleferre: Concertino for Harp and Orchestra (1927) / Boulanger: D'un Soir Triste (1918); D'un Matin de Printemps (1918) by Fanny Mendelssohn, Clara Wieck Schumann, Germaine Tailleferre, Lili Boulanger, and Joann Falletta
	Women of Note ~ Beach, Boulanger, Clarke, Gubaidulina, Larsen, Mendelssohn, Monk, Musgrave, Ran, Zwilich by Libby Larsen, Sofia Gubaidulina, Nadia Boulanger, Germaine Tailleferre, and Amy Beach

Critic's voices:

Strings Magazine, 2016“Talk about power in numbers. A debut album from Trio 180―violinist Ann Miller, cellist Nina Flyer, and pianist Sonia Leong, the faculty piano-trio-in-residence at the University of the Pacific Conservatory of Music―presents a fine collection of chamber-music repertoire.” Strings Magazine, 2016

San Francisco Classical Voice, 2005 “ The program was offbeat; the playing was marvelous. After intermission came a terrific performance of the Shostakovich Second Trio, one remarkable for exaggerating in all the right places. The opening (with the cello in ferociously-difficult artificial harmonics that I don't think I've heard performed better live), was spellbinding.” (New Pacific Trio review)

San Francisco Classical Voice, 2002 “...the group's (trio) infectious musical vivacity that proved most memorable..Flyer's rich tone...impressive debut.” (New Pacific Trio review)

Strings Magazine, 2001 ..........hauntingly beautiful performance............Especially sympathetic is Flyer's deep, rich, attentive tone, which balances perfectly.” (Lou Harrison CD review)

San Francisco Chronicle, 2000 “...The most affecting moment was principal cellist Nina Flyer's lustrous solo rendition of "Deep River...” (Women's Philharmonic review)

Detroit Metro News, 1999 “..and cellist Nina Flyer are fine musical comrades and persuasive Harrison exponents.” (Lou Harrison CD review)

San Francisco Examiner, 1999 “the new recording of the Suite for Cello and Harp (Lou Harrison)...replaces the venerable performance by Seymour Barab and Lucille Lawrence...the recording, which features Nina Flyer is as good as they come. ”

Denver Post, 1995 “...Shulamit Ran's..piece written in 1993 and beautifully played by cellist Flyer.” (Ran CD review)

Oakland Tribune, 1993 “...which got a vigorous and thoughtful performance featuring principal cellist Nina Flyer as soloist.” (Live performance, Ran, review)

San Francisco Chronicle, 1993 “...Nina Flyer delivered an intelligent and ardent account of the music.” (Live performance, Ran, review)

East Bay Express, 1993 “...tremendous skills of soloist Nina Flyer, who dug into the virtuosic cadenza which opens the piece and sawed away on her cello with both fierce abandon and phenomenal technical control.”

San Francisco Chronicle, 1986 “Flyer's tawny sound elegance of expression were just what was needed to underline the positive spirit and pleasure of the music.” (Vivaldi Cello Concerto with San Francisco Chamber Orchestra review)

Munich, the Muchner-Merkur, 1983 “...the famous, expressive dialogue with the (female and quite excellently executed) solo cello.” (cello solo in Liszt piano concerto review)

Jerusalem Post, 1981 “...The cellist, a fine musician and totally committed interpreter, is endowed with a smooth and sound technique; a controlled emotionalism; and an understanding of different periods and musical approach.”

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