An award-winning musician and scholar, Dr. Lori Kesner enjoys a distinguished and active career as both a performing flutist and world music lecturer. In 2002, she was awarded a Fulbright grant to study Karnatak flute in South India. The following year, she accepted a faculty position at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music (CCM) as Director of the Andean World Music Lab and Preparatory Division Instructor of Flute Performance. In addition, Dr. Kesner served as a Visiting Instructor at Miami University in Ohio, where she founded and directed the Andean and African world music ensembles as well as teaching flute and world music courses.
Currently, Dr. Kesner is a Lecturer in Music at Washington College and an Artist Affiliate at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. Her international influence as an educator grew in 2008 when she joined the faculty of the Portuguesa State Youth Orchestra for the Venezuelan El Sistema. She has continued her commitment to education through world music lectures at Johns Hopkins University, which she extended to the Towson University community in 2014.
As an experienced and sought-after orchestral flutist, Dr. Kesner performs regularly with the Annapolis Symphony and the Utah Festival Opera & Musical Theatre Company. She served as the piccolo player with the Maryland Lyric Opera until its closure in 2023. Her extensive orchestral collaborations include performances with orchestras across the Americas and Europe, such as the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, IRIS Orchestra (TN), Richmond Symphony (VA), Annapolis Opera (MD), Baltimore Chamber Orchestra (MD), Mid-Atlantic Symphony (MD & DE), Bach in Baltimore (MD), Alexandria Symphony (VA), Binghamton Philharmonic (NY), Lancaster Symphony (PA), Key West Symphony (FL), Aspen Music Festival (CO), National Repertory Orchestra (CO), AIMS Festival Orchestra in Graz, Austria, and the Opera Theatre of Lucca, Italy. She has had the privilege of performing under the batons of distinguished conductors including James Conlon, Larry Rachleff, Michael Stern, Olari Elts, Cornelius Eberhardt, Michael Tilson Thomas, and James Ross and has appeared as a soloist with various ensembles both in the United States and Europe.
Dr. Kesner has been recognized for her artistry with numerous accolades. She is a two-time winner of the National Flute Association’s Masterclass Performers Competition, earned second prize in the NFA Orchestral Audition Competition, and was a finalist in the Myrna W. Brown Artist Competition, as well as a semi-finalist in the Frank Bowen Young Artist Competition. In 2009, she won the National Flute Association’s DMA/PhD Dissertation competition and presented her award-winning thesis, Krishna Meets Pan: Indian-Western Fusion in Two Works for Flute and Harp by Ravi Shankar and John Mayer, at the National Flute Convention in New York City.
Dr. Kesner received her Bachelor of Music summa cum laude from Ithaca College, where she studied flute under Wendy Mehne. She continued her studies at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music (CCM), earning both a Master of Music, studying flute with Randolph Bowman and piccolo with Jack Wellbaum, and a Doctor of Musical Arts in Flute Performance with a secondary focus in Ethnomusicology, studying flute with Bradley Garner and ethnomusicology with Robert Templeman. Dr. Kesner has also performed in masterclasses for distinguished flutists such as Julius Baker, Michel Debost, Paula Robison, and Marina Piccinini. Additionally, she has pursued further studies with Mark Sparks and Martha Aarons and has been mentored by esteemed flutists Göran Marcusson and Alberto Almarza.
Contact
Affiliate Artist
Flute
lkesner@umbc.edu
www.lorikesner.com
Education
B.M. Ithaca College (1998)
M.Mus. University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music (2000)
D.M.A. University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music (2006)