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Research Committee

Our Mission

The Research Committee serves to promote the value of research, elevate the level of scholarly writing among flute professionals, encourage the creation of new scholarly work to benefit the profession, and expose new and important scholarly work to an interested audience.

Activities

Committee members include award-winning collegiate faculty members, authors, historians, librarians, and writers with a strong background in both music research and flute.  The Committee also oversees and adjudicates the annual Graduate Research Competition.

The Flutists' Family Tree

In 2003, Demetra Baferos Fair, a doctoral student at Ohio State University, completed a document entitled Flutists’ Family Tree: In Search of the American Flute School. It is a valuable  compilation of information on several thousand American flutists. Now, in honor of the US  semiquincentennial, the NFA Research Committee, working with NFA archivist/historian Nancy  Toff, is organizing an update and expansion of that database.

We hope that all NFA members will participate by filling in this simple form (link opens in new window).  We demonstrated some of the work on this  research in a poster session at the 2026 convention. Research is ongoing and contributions are  welcome at any time.

If you have questions, comments, or suggestions, or would like to volunteer to work on the project (for example, researching published or online sources or if you have database  programming experience), please write us at flutistsfamilytree@gmail.com. Thank you.

The American Flute Music Database

Much musical activity in 2026 will be oriented around the US quincentennial. All year,
musicians will be asked to provide programs celebrating that anniversary. The NFA Research
Committee, working with NFA archivist/historian Nancy Toff and with Lisa Bost-Sandberg, has
begun a database of American flute repertoire that we hope will be helpful to flutists organizing

meaningful programs this year and into the future. You can find it here: https://tinyurl.com/yrxrkefr

A few notes about criteria for selection:
  • We include works for flute, piccolo, and low flutes.
  • We include solo works and small chamber works, generally up to 4 instruments, occasionally 5 (especially flute and strings) but not woodwind quintets (which are well covered in other online databases).
  • We do not include works for flute choir (which are also covered in other listings).
  • The composer should be American either by birth or residency; US citizenship is not required.
  • We’ve set a limit of 15 pieces per composer as a general rule, though we will occasionally flex it if need be.
  • We do not include purely educational works, such as etudes.
  • All works must be published and generally available; that includes self-published works available online for download or hardcopy purchase.

The database is fully sortable by composer, title, instrumentation, etc. but it is not downloadable.

The database is intentionally a work in progress. We will be filling in missing data and adding to the list on a regular basis, with updates posted approximately once a month. We enthusiastically welcome suggestions from all members using this Google form (link opens in new window; easier on laptop than mobile phone). Alternatively (and particularly for multiple submissions), you can download a blank Excel form and submit it by email to NFAAmericanmusic@gmail.com.

If you have questions, corrections, or suggestions, or would like to help with the project, write us at NFAAmericanmusic@gmail.com. Thank you.

VIEW THE DATABASE | Google Submission Form (Individual Pieces) | Excel Submission Form (Multiple Pieces)

Graduate Research Competition

In 2001, the NFA established an annual Graduate Research Competition for outstanding PhD/DMA thesis/dissertation/treatise/projects in order to promote the value of research and to expose new and important scholarly work to an interested audience.

A panel selects up to two winners for their outstanding contributions to flute study based on the quality of their writing, research, abstract, and proposal. Each winner will be invited to give a 25-minute presentation summarizing the important contributions of his/her project at the following NFA Convention.  The winners’ abstracts will be published in The Flutist Quarterly and each dissertation/thesis/treatise will be deposited in the NFA Music Library at the University of Arizona after review.

For more information, go to:
The Graduate Research Competition page

Resources

    • Writing Program Notes (pdf)
    • Handout: Trailblazing the Future of Flute Scholarship: AI, Research, and the Next 250 Years
      • A handout from the Committee's presentation at the 2026 NFA Convention
    NFA Portland AI and Research Booth signage

    Committee Members

    Heidi P Alvarez

    Heidi Álvarez, Chair

    Heidi Álvarez, professor of music at Western Kentucky Univ., is second flutist of the Orchestra Kentucky Bowling Green. She holds degrees from Oberlin (BM) and from Florida State Univ. (MM and DM) and studied with Debost, Chastain, and DeLaney.

    Kelariz Keshavarz

    Kelariz Keshavarz

    Kelariz Keshavarz (she/her) is Asst. Prof. of Flute at UNC - Chapel Hill, and founder of the New Waves project. Primary performance interests include those of Middle-Eastern music and those of living composers. She holds degrees from Univ. of UT (DMA) and Univ. of MO (MM). www.kelariz.com

    Nancy Toff

    Nancy Toff

    Nancy Toff is the author of Monarch of the Flute: The Life of Georges Barrère, The Flute Book, The Development of the Modern Flute, and Georges Barrère and the Flute in America. She is archivist and past president of the New York Flute Club. She received the NFA Distinguished Service Award in 2012.

    Valerie Watts

    Valerie Watts

    Valerie Watts is professor of flute at the Univ. of Oklahoma School of Music and principal flute of the Oklahoma City Philharmonic Orchestra and New Hampshire Music Festival Orchestra. Her solo and chamber tours include Germany, Brazil, China, and NFA in 2001 (Dallas, TX) and 2012 (Las Vegas).

    Lisa Chaufty

    Lisa Chaufty

    Lisa Chaufty is the director of the McKay Music Library and adjunct associate professor in the School of Music at the University of Utah. In addition to leading the library, Lisa teaches the graduate course in music bibliography and research skills. She also co-directs the Early Music Ensemble at the U and performs professionally on the traverso and recorders. Her formal education spans music (Wellesley), musicology (UC Berkeley) and librarianship (University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign).

    Karissa Krenz

    Karissa Krenz, ex officio

    Karissa Krenz, NFA Publications Director, is a NYC-based creative professional. She has worked with the New York Philharmonic, Lincoln Center, the Actors Fund, WQXR/New York Public Radio, Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Central Park Conservancy, Parsons School of Design at the New School, and others.

    Erin Torres

    Erin Torres

    Highly regarded as an educator, clinician, soloist, new music specialist, and orchestral flutist, Dr. Erin Torres has performed and taught throughout the US, Cuba, the UK, Spain, France, Austria, North Macedonia, Kosovo, Albania, China, and Canada. She is Principal Flutist with the Lima Symphony, Newark-Granville Symphony, and Worthington Chamber Orchestras. Dr. Torres's active research interests center on historically-informed performance and language-guided articulative practices, aided by spectral analysis.

    Jeiran Hasan

    Jeiran Hasan

    Jeiran Hasan (she/her) is Asst. Prof. of Flute at UT State Univ. and co-founder of the NFA YAMP Program. Primary performance interests include those of music of Azerbaijan and living female composers. She holds degrees from Univ. of IA (DMA) and the Cleveland Institute of Music. www.j-hasan.com

    James Thompson

    James Thompson

    James Thompson (he/him) is Affiliate Professor of Flute at Grand Valley State Univ., and holds the 3rd flute/piccolo position with Symphony of the Lakes. He received a Doctor of Arts from Ball State, MM from Illinois State Univ., and BM from Truman State Univ.

    Farah Zolghadr

    Farah Zolghadr

    Farah Zolghadr (she/her) received a DMA in flute performance from the Univ. of Miami where she studied with Trudy Kane and she was a Henry Mancini Fellow. While completing her MM and the Univ. of Nevada, Las Vegas with Jennifer Grim she won the UNLV Concerto Competition, where she performed the Liebermann Piccolo Concerto. She has performed with the Illinois Symphony Orchestra, Jacksonville (IL) Symphony, Quincy Symphony Orchestra, Miami Symphony Orchestra, and Florida Grand Opera.

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