Flutist Linda Chesis founder and artistic director of the Cooperstown Summer Music Festival, has been hailed by critics on three continents as one of the most exciting and dynamic flutists of her generation. She has collaborated with such renowned artists as Jessye Norman, Dawn Upshaw, James Levine, and the late Jean-Pierre Rampal and has performed with orchestras and in solo recitals throughout the U.S., France, Great Britain, Germany, Japan, Korea and China.

Ms. Chesis received a B.A. from Yale College with a major in the History of Art. She was awarded Yale’s John Courtney Murray Fellowship and a Rotary International Fellowship, which allowed her to continue flute studies for two years with Jean-Pierre Rampal at the Paris Conservatory. One week after receiving the Conservatory’s Premier Prix, she was appointed principal flute of the Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse. Top prizewinner at the Paris and Barcelona International Competitions, and at the National Flute Association Competition, Ms. Chesis has been the recipient of many additional awards, including a Solo Recitalist’s Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts. She has been the subject of numerous television and radio broadcasts, and her performances can be regularly heard on American Public Media’s Performance Today.

Ms. Chesis has been a guest artist at the Bowdoin InternationalMusic Festival. Salzburg Mozarteum, the Spoleto Festival of Two Worlds, Bravo! Colorado, Tanglewood Music Festival, An Appalachian Summer Festival, and Music from Angel Fire, among many others.

Ms. Chesis is on the flute and chamber music faculties at ManhattanSchool of Music. Chair of MSM’s Woodwind Department since 1988, she joined the Precollege faculty in 2005. Linda Chesis is also the co-artistic director of MSM’s annual Amateur Chamber Musicians Festival, founded in 2011, and serves as a faculty representative on the Board of Trustees.

Ms. Chesis regularly offers master classes for flute associations andat universities and conservatories around the globe. Her recordings can be heard on the EMI, Nonesuch, and Music Masters labels.