Aim for excellence! You can improve your skills with expert advice. Download the annotated sheet music of this flute masterclass. Please note that this piece has been annotated in accordance to Silvia Careddu’s feedback and comments.

First Prize and the Audience prize at the 56th Concours International de Musique de Genève.

Silvia Careddu made an auspicious start to her career by winning unanimously the First Prize and the Audience prize at the 56th Concours International de Genève.

Following the award, Lorin Maazel invited Silvia to become solo flute of his newly founded Filarmonica Arturo Toscanini. She later joined the Konzerthausorchester Berlin, the Wiener Symphoniker and the Wiener Philharmoniker-Wiener Staatsoper, as principal flute. In 2012 she became artistic partner of the Kammerakademie Potsdam, winner of the Echo-Preis 2015 (for the category Best German Orchestra). As guest principal flute, Silvia plays with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra, the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, Budapest Festival Orchestra, Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Sinfonia Grange au Lac. Silvia is a founder member of the Alban Berg Ensemble Wien, flexible chamber music group of virtuoso instrumentalists, that has a concert series at the Brahms-Saal of the Musikverein in Vienna and records for the Deutsche Grammophon. Her presence as soloist and chamber music partner is very demanded in important festivals (Schleswig Holstein, Festival des Arcs, Bürgenstock Festival, Australian National Academy for Music, Festival de Pollenca, Festival de Salon, Musiktage Mondsee, Weggis Galway Festival, Riva del Garda, Hitzacker Festival, Flautissimo, Fukuoka Japan Convention, NFA American Flute Convention, AFE Spanish Flute Convention, Festival de Colmar). Silvia Careddu is Professor at the Conservatoire – Académie Supérieure de Strasbourg HEAR, at the Hochschule für Musik ‘Hanns Eisler’ in Berlin, at the Barenboim-Said Akademie (Berlin) and at the Scuola di Musica di Fiesole (Italy) as well. She regularly gives masterclasses in Europe and Asia and has served as juror for the Concours de Genève, the Nicolet International Flute Competition, the Premio Claudio Abbado, the Concours Maxence Larrieu, the Crussell International Competition and the Prague Spring International Music competition.

Silvia Careddu was born in Cagliari (Italy), studied at the Conservatoire de Musique et de Danse de Paris, where she graduated with distinctions. She owes important influences and artistic impulses to A. Nicolet, F. Souchard, R. Ghiani, R. Guiot, E. Pahud and P.-Y. Artaud. With Emmanuel Pahud and Trevor Pinnock she has recorded Trio Sonatas by J. S. Bach for EMI.

Johann Sebastian Bach is undoubtedly one of the most important figures in music history. His incredible creative power, technical mastery, and intellect have made a lasting impression not only on classical music but also on many different modern music genres we know today.

Born in 1685 in Eisenach, Germany, Bach was a member of a very well-known family of musicians. At 18-years-olds, he began working in Arnstadt where he accompanied hymns at church. His professional career as a musician would follow in Weimar, where he resided from 1708 to 1717. Here, Bach would deepen his theoretical study of composition and write most of his organ works. Moreover, he composed preludes and fugues that would be part of his collection The Well-Tempered Clavier. After building a considerable reputation in Weimar, Bach moved to Köthen to take a new role as Chapel Master. Writing less religious songs and putting more of a focus on chamber music, his compositions from this time would bring Baroque instrumental music to its pinnacle.

From 1723 until his death in 1750, Bach worked in Leipzig. First, as Thomaskantor at the Thomasschule and later as a private tutor and director of the Collegium Musicum. During this time, Bach worked on creating a repertoire of cantatas for church and revised many of his previous compositions. From 1726 onward, his keyboard works were published. His death in 1750 came to mark the end of the Baroque period and the beginning of Classicism. For many years after his passing, Johann Sebastian Bach’s works were buried with him until they resurfaced many years later and celebrated for their musical ingenuity.