Erika Inge Leake

(As of 2001)

The 2000 Myrna Brown Competition 1st place winner, Erika Inge Leake, began her formal musical education with Parker Taylor at the age of 17.  From his tutelage she went on to Florida State University, where she studied with Charles DeLaney, and completed her Bachelor of Music in 1994.  While at F.S.U. Ms. Leake won the 1991 Florida Flute Association Young Artist Competition and the 1994 National Flute Association Master Class Competition.  Ms. Leake also premiered several works during her study at F.S.U., some of which were written for her.

Ms. Leake received her Master of Music from Indiana University in 1998.  On completion of her first year of study, Ms. Leake went to England for an intensive flute course with Trevor Wye.  After returning to America she resumed study with James Scott at I.U.  While at I.U., Ms. Leake began her formal study of the baroque flute with Barbara Kallaur.  She participated in the Baroque Orchestra and many chamber groups, and also performed on recital with the faculty of the I.U. Early Music Institute.  In her last year at I.U., she won the university's Flute Concerto Competition.

Ms. Leake finished her second year and course work of her Doctor of Musical Arts degree at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music in 2000, where she studied flute with Bradley Garner and piccolo with Jack Wellbaum.  She is currently teaching privately in Central Florida and is a substitute player with the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra.

As a soloist, Ms. Leake has given recitals throughout America and England, including solo performances at the 1993 and 1999 National Flute Association Conventions and at the 1993 and 2001 Florida Flute Association Conventions.  Her most recent appearances as soloist and master class instructor have been at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, and the Middle Tennessee Flute Festival.  Most recently Ms. Leake performed in the Winter Sun Music Festival in St. Petersburg, Florida.