Esther is a professional flutist and flute teacher based in Albuquerque, New Mexico. She plays flute and piccolo with several symphony orchestras throughout New Mexico and Texas, winning positions with the Austin Symphony Orchestra in 2019, and the New Mexico Philharmonic in 2023. She also appears regularly with the Santa Fe Symphony, and was the piccoloist of the El Paso Symphony Orchestra from 2014-2023.
Esther served as the interim Professor of Flute at New Mexico State University for the spring semester of 2021, and maintains a diverse flute studio of mostly adult and high school students. While a student at the Oberlin Conservatory, Esther had the honor of participating in the Oberlin Panama Project, a program that sends students to Panama to teach alongside instructors from Panama and Venezuela.
Her work in contemporary music includes appearances with Chatter ABQ, performances with Le Nouvel Ensemble Moderne at Domaine Forget in Quebec (2013), and with Eighth Blackbird in the live-version premiere of Steve Reich’s Pulitzer Prize winning Double Sextet in Seattle, San Francisco, and New York City with the composer (2009). In 2011 Esther was selected as a winner of the Frances Walton Competition in Seattle, with an adventurous program of Baroque and contemporary unaccompanied flute repertoire. In addition to receiving a cash prize, she participated in a week long concert tour throughout Washington state, and performed a live recital on classical KING FM in Seattle.
Esther received her formal musical training at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music (B.M. 2009), the Sydney Conservatorium in Australia, and the University of Oregon (M.M. 2012). Her principal teachers were Michel Debost, Alexa Still, and Molly Barth.
Aside from music, Esther’s interests include adobe architecture, her two dogs, and growing fruit. In 2020, Esther started a small design-build adobe construction company, Albuquerque Joinery, with her partner Kenny.
Esther Fredrickson, Flutist 