Short Biography

Flutist Leone Buyse relinquished her principal positions with the Boston Symphony and Boston Pops in 1993 to pursue a more active solo and teaching career after 22 years as an orchestral musician. A former member of the San Francisco Symphony and the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, she has appeared as soloist on numerous occasions with those orchestras and also with the Boston Symphony, the Boston Pops, the Utah Symphony, the Xalapa Symphony, Orquesta Sinfónia Nacional (Mexico City) and l'Orchestre de la Suisse Romande. She has performed with the Boston Symphony Chamber Players throughout Europe and Japan, with the Tokyo, Juilliard, Brentano, and Muir String Quartets, and in recital with Jessye Norman and Yo-Yo Ma.

The only American prizewinner in the 1969 Geneva International Flute Competition, Ms. Buyse has presented recitals and master classes across the United States and in Canada, Mexico, Central and South America, Europe, Norway, Japan, New Zealand, and Australia. She has performed and taught at numerous major North American festivals, including Aspen, Sarasota, Music Academy of the West, Norfolk, and Domaine Forget (Quebec). Her solo recordings have appeared on the Crystal, Boston Records, Albany, and C.R.I. labels.

In July 2023 Ms. Buyse stepped down from her position as the Mullen Professor of Flute at Rice University in Houston, Texas, having taught at Rice for 26 years. During her career she also taught at the University of Michigan, the New England Conservatory, Boston University, the Tanglewood Music Center, and as a visiting professor at the Eastman School of Music. Her former students hold positions at major universities and in many major orchestras. Also an accomplished pianist, Ms. Buyse served for two years as a collaborative pianist at Jean-Pierre Rampal's summer master classes in Nice, France. An active member of the National Flute Association, she received the organization’s Lifetime Achievement Award for outstanding contributions to the flute community worldwide at the 38th annual convention in Anaheim, California in August 2010. She maintains a web presence at www.leonebuyse.com.