Brenna Wiinanen, flutist, is an active performer, teacher, and administrator whose experiences have led to numerous masterclasses, performances, and conferences around the world.
Though originally from North Dakota, Wiinanen is currently based in Chattanooga, Tennessee, where she is on faculty at Southern Adventist University and runs an active private studio. Wiinanen holds a Doctorate in Music (Woodwind Performance, Flute) from Florida State University (FSU) as well as specialized studies in Arts Administration and College Teaching. While at FSU, Wiinanen served as a teaching assistant for the flute studio, where she taught applied flute lessons, flute choir, studio class, woodwind methods, introduction to Baroque flute, and undergraduate chamber ensembles. Her treatise, The Flutist’s Guide to Opera Fantasies, serves as a reference work for flutists by suggesting a proposed process for analyzing and performing opera fantasies and cataloging known and lost opera fantasies written for the flute.
Wiinanen also holds a Bachelor of Arts degree (Music Performance, Flute) from Coastal Carolina University (CCU), where she graduated as the Outstanding Senior in the Music Department, with Honors, and Summa Cum Laude, and a Master in Music with a dual concentration in Musicology and Performance (Flute) from the University of Kansas (KU). Her published thesis titled “The National Flute Association’s Twentieth Anniversary Anthology of American Flute Music and the Development of American Compositional Style in the Twentieth Century,” explores how the conception and formation process influenced the reception of The Anthology and its relevance today.
Wiinanen is an active performer with numerous professional ensembles. In 2021, she helped found the Fountain Five Woodwind Quintet (F5), whose goal is to further the accessibility of chamber music to those who would not normally come to a concert hall. F5 frequently collaborates with the South Georgia Ballet, giving outreach performances of Peter and the Wolf for elementary schools in Thomasville, GA; the Panama City Symphony Orchestra; and the Sinfonia Gulf Coast Orchestra, where they were the Woodwind Quintet in Residence for the 2023-2024 academic year. In 2022, F5 premiered Debussy’s La Mer arranged for Wind Quintet and Piano by Tyler Taylor. In April of 2023, F5 was awarded first place in the ensemble division of the Music International Grand Prix, resulting in a performance in the Kaufman Center in New York City. In March of 2024, F5 completed a tour to three universities in North Dakota and Minnesota.
In addition to F5, Wiinanen recently won Principal Flute with the Panama City Symphony Orchestra and frequently subs on flute and piccolo for the Tallahassee Symphony Orchestra and the Tallahassee Community Chorus. As a solo performer, recent highlights include being a featured soloist at the “Music in the Woods” recital series in Bainbridge, Georgia, and recitals at Florida Flute Association conventions (2023 – “Flute Favorites;” 2024 – “Musical Memories of Mannheim”).
In May 2017, Wiinanen studied music in Italy as a part of a study abroad program through CCU, where she made her international debut performing chamber works alongside classmates in Arezzo, Italy. In addition, she was a Research Fellow for the Edwards College of Humanities and Fine Arts and had the distinguished opportunity to research a variety of topics pertaining to music under the mentorship of prominent professors. One of these projects, in which she composed a third movement to Mozart’s Andante in C for flute, won first place in the 2019 university-wide undergraduate research competition and was also featured in the South Carolina Flute Society’s newsletter from Spring 2019.
Wiinanen was also selected to present her research on Hildegard von Bingen and the early musical influences of Jutta of Sponheim at the College Music Society Mid-Atlantic Chapter Conference in March 2018. Wiinanen also performed with the Collegiate Flute Choir at the National Flute Association’s national conference in the summer of 2019 and won second place at the Kansas Flute Society’s 2020 online summer competition, college division, for her performance of Toru Takemitsu’s Air. In January of 2023, Wiinanen won a spot in the Florida Flute Convention’s 2023 Advanced Masterclass and served as their 2023 High School Honors Choir Coordinator. At the 2024 convention, she also served as the High School Young Artists Competition Coordinator.
Wiinanen also enjoys maintaining an active blog on her website, serving as the Communications and Education Coordinator for Wintergreen Music, and seeking new opportunities for development in performance, teaching, administration, and research. Her primary teachers include Amy Hardison Tully, Daniel Velasco, Mary Matthews, and Karen Large.