Texas Flute Society Presents
2026 Guests Artists
Amy Taylor
Amy Taylor is widely regarded for her artistry on both flute and piccolo and has built a multifaceted career as an orchestral performer, chamber musician, soloist, and educator. Over the course of her professional life she has held significant orchestral posts, including Principal Piccolo of
the San Diego Symphony and seven seasons as Second Flute with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. She also held positions with the Milwaukee Symphony and Honolulu Symphony Orchestras. During the 2023-24 season, Taylor was the Acting Piccolo of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and has also appeared as Guest Principal Flute with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and Guest Piccolo with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra.
Taylor is in frequent demand as a guest musician with the country’s leading orchestras. She has performed extensively with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, touring to Carnegie Hall and on the ensemble’s tours to Asia. She has appeared with the Cleveland Orchestra, Minnesota, Pittsburgh, St. Louis and Nashville Symphony Orchestras on both flute and piccolo. As a recording artist, Taylor was the featured piccoloist on the recently released, Detroit Symphony Orchestra recording of Wynton Marsalis’s Blues Symphony and has also recorded with the Chicago Symphony and Cincinnati Symphony Orchestras.
Outside the orchestral sphere, Taylor’s collaborations include a notable solo appearance with Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble at Chicago’s Grant Park. She was also the first place winner of the National Flute Association’s Orchestral Excerpts Competition and the Oklahoma Young Artist Competition. In the festival setting, Taylor has appeared at the Sitka Summer Music Festival, St. Barth Music Festival, Arizona Music Festival, Sun Valley Music Festival, Chautauqua Symphony, Bellingham Music Festival, among others.
A passionate educator, Taylor currently serves on the flute faculty at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music and as Piccolo Instructor at the University of North Texas, where her work as a piccolo specialist informs both studio instruction and masterclasses. She also teaches at the Interlochen Summer Arts Academy, where she works with young artists from around the world. Taylor is a Yamaha Artist, playing on a handmade C-foot, silver flute. Originally from the Dallas area, Taylor earned her BM from the University of North Texas and her MM from Northwestern University. Her primary teachers include Walfrid Kujala and Terri Sundberg.
Rama Kumaran
Rama Kumaran is a multiflutist in Nashville, TN. He has played the official recordings of Herman Beeftink’s flute music for the last 10 years. As a teenager, he was the youngest winner of the National Flute Association’s Young Artist Competition, later completing his Bachelors at Vanderbilt University and his Masters in classical and early music at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam. Rama plays piccolo in the Jackson Symphony in west Tennessee, and as a Nashville recording artist he plays orchestral and folk flutes on the soundtracks of movies, video games, and theme park attractions. He has the heart of a gamer, so when he’s not practicing or reading, he’s watching his favorite streamers or leveling up his characters in Honkai: Star Rail.
Rama plays a Muramatsu 9K custom concert flute and a Hammig cocuswood piccolo.
Rama’s teachers include Kersten McCall, Jed Wentz, Molly Barth, Jeff Coffin, Michael Rose, Carl Smith, Marianne Ploger, Leslie Fagan, Philip Dikeman, Tracy Harris, Karen Hansen, and Lovina Leon.
James Lee
Chen-Yu Lee is a Taiwanese born Flutist pursuing his Graduate Artist Certificate at the University of North Texas, and holds the 2nd Flute position with the Las Colinas Symphony Orchestra. He has most recently been awarded the 1st place prize at the Texas Flute Society – 40th Texas Flute Society Myrna Brown Competition, UNT George Papich Chamber Competition and the Colorado Flute Association Young Artist Competition.
He has also competed as a finalist in the Houston Flute Club – Byron Hester Competition, and The James Pappoutsakis Memorial Flute Competition (Boston Flute Festival). Lee was also selected to appear in the Young Artist Competition at the National Flute Convention. Lee is greatly thankful for his past and present mentors, Cathy Peterson, Alexa Still, Elise Blatchford, Ann Bobo, Linda Toote, Terri Sundberg, and Amy Taylor.