NFA News
IF Ensemble Receives 2026 Mary H. Anderson Flute Choir Award
The NFA is happy to announce that the 2026 Mary H. Anderson Flute Choir Award has been presented to the IF Ensemble, a collegiate flute choir from Inje University in Busan, South Korea.
The annual award, first presented in 2022 to honor gifted flutist Mary H. Anderson, recognizes the top-placed collegiate flute choir in the NFA’s Flute Ensemble Festival. The IF Ensemble will receive a grant of $1,000 to go toward convention registration, use of the Mary H. Anderson contrabass flute, a dedicated 25-minute concert at the NFA Convention and the naming of the flute choir as the Mary H. Anderson Collegiate Flute Choir.
“Receiving this award from the National Flute Association is a tremendous honor for our ensemble from Inje University in Korea,” says Shinjung Oh, professor of flute at Inje University and director of the flute ensemble. “Preparing this program allowed us to explore the rich colors, blend, and musical dialogue that make flute ensemble music so unique. We are truly grateful for the opportunity to share our music with the international flute community, and we sincerely thank the NFA for this encouragement and support.”
Members of the IF Ensemble are current faculty and students at Inje University.
Performers include faculty members Munjung Moon Kwag and Seongsik Kim, as well as students Ayoung Kim, Eunchae Lee, Hyewon Choi, Jaeyoung Kim, Jimin Shin, Jiwon Nam, Joonhee Park, Kyeongeun Kim, Kyungmin Eom, Nayoung Kim, Yoochae Kim and Yubeen Kim.
The IF Ensemble will perform at the 54th Annual NFA Convention in Portland, OR on Saturday, Aug. 8, at 2 p.m. Their performance will take place in the Holladay Lobby of the Oregon Convention Center, 777 NE Martin Luther King Jr Blvd, Portland, OR 97232.
A special thank you to the people who coordinated this year’s Flute Ensemble Festival applications: Jacob Mauldwin, Coordinator; Adrienne Tedjamulia, Assistant Coordinator; and the Flute Ensemble Selection Committee of Julie Baker, Timothy Hagen, and Joshua Stine. Funding for the award is provided solely through the NFA Endowment's Mary H. Anderson Fund.
About Mary H. Anderson: The Mary H. Anderson Award was first presented in 2022 to honor Mary H. Anderson, a gifted flute player who devoted her life to sharing her flute talents through a lifetime of teaching and performing. She was an active member of the NFA and performed, by audition and invitation, at NFA conventions throughout the United States. From childhood, her daughters Susan and Ashley Anderson, attended these NFA conventions with their mother and watched her and so many others perform. As an adjunct faculty member at both Michigan's Delta College and Saginaw Valley State University (where she received the Mary H. Anderson Adjunct Faculty Award), Mary founded the Delta Flute Choir (which she also directed); Flutee, a professional Quartet in Residence at Saginaw Valley; and the ensemble now known as the Valley Wind Quintet. She performed with these and other various chamber ensembles throughout Michigan, as well as presenting clinics and master classes in flute performance. After studying flute at the University of Louisville in Kentucky, she performed with both the Louisville Orchestra and Saginaw Symphony Orchestra, where she performed for 50 years and became the Orchestra's longest playing member.