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.

Born in Bonn, Germany in 1770, Ludwig van Beethoven is one of the most mainstream references of Classicism — a pianist, composer, and an unequivocal genius. Descending from a long line of musicians, Beethoven studied music from an early age, beginning with the piano, clarinet, and the organ. At the ripe age of 11-years-old, Beethoven received his first job as a court organist, replacing his own teacher for a period of time. A veritable young prodigy, Beethoven was publicly compared to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and a few years later, the young musician traveled to Vienna to briefly study under the tutelage of Mozart himself. In his late 20s, Beethoven noticed difficulties with his hearing and by his mid 40s, he was completely deaf and unable to vocally communicate. Despite this misfortune, he remarkably continued to compose music. Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 was written after he had entirely lost his hearing. 
 While his early musical career heavily reflected the Viennese Classical tradition inherited by the likes of Mozart and Haydn, Beethoven achieved a unique revolutionary identity by the end of his career. Deceased in 1827, his wake was a public event that gathered around 10,000 people. Despite his passing, Beethoven’s legacy lives on. His works anticipated many of the features that would characterize music in the romantic era and even that of the 20th century.