Revealed: the 3 best examples of incredible flute playing.

Captured on video! These 3 short recordings show just how wonderful the flute can sound when the player is given an opportunity to excel at their instrument. !! CAUTION: These videos are pretty extreme examples of amazing flute playing. It took these many players years to be able to play like they do. But they all started out as beginners too. Getting started is easy, and learning is not as hard as you think. And once you get started, the sky is the limit as to what you can achieve.

#3: Rhonda Larson Takes Multitasking to a Whole New Level

This incredible video features a woman who is not only an amazing flute player but also an amazing flute composer as well! Her composition, titled Be Still My Soul, is a beautiful arrangement of a famous melody from Sibelius’s symphonic poem, Finlandia. This melody would later go on to be arranged as a hymn under the same name as Larson’s composition. In her piece, Larson shows that it is possible to sing and play the flute at the same time. The results of this happy coincidence are both beautiful and haunting. What’s more amazing though, is that Larson manages to sing completely different pitches than the ones she’s playing. This performance is a great example of the emotional range that good flutists are capable of creating on their instruments.

#2: This Teenager Plays Circles Around the Competition

Within the orchestral world, it’s common for different instrument families to “borrow” repertoire from one another. A cello piece might be performed by an oboist, or a saxophone might take a shot at a clarinet concerto. However, none do it with as much raw talent as the performer in this next incredible video. In it, 13 year old Emma Resmini performs the notoriously difficult violin classic, Zigeunerweisen (sometimes translated as Gypsy Airs) by Spanish composer Sarasate. This piece, which is broken up into equally difficult slow and fast sections, confounds even the most experienced violin players. But Resmini performs the piece in style (and from memory, no less!) without even breaking a sweat. While it’s easy for us to write off talented, young musicians as merely lucky or genetically blessed, there’s no doubt that Resmini spent countless hours studying and practicing this piece. And just so there’s no question of whether or not she’s a one trick pony, Resmini has recorded dozens of amazing performances that are just as impressive as this one.

#1: A Master’s Take on a Classic Piece

While the previous videos demonstrated that flutes and flute players have an impressive range of capabilities in this world, it’s also important to remember the place where the flute feels most at home - the orchestra. In our number #1 video, world-class flutist Emmanuel Pahud peforms the famous “Entr’acte” from the opera Carmen by Bizet with the Berlin Philharmonic. This performance is a literal tour-de-force of orchestral powerhouses. Pahud has toured worldwide as a soloist and is currently the principal flutist for the Berlin Philharmonic, which is world-famous in its own respect. To top it all off, the piece is conducted by Gustavo Dudamel, Venezuela’s most beloved and energetic composer. The Entr’acte is a short, but moving, slow piece that is great for displaying the lyric capabilities of the instrument. When it’s being performed by a master like Pahud, you’re all but guaranteed an amazingly beautiful performance.