Congratulations Robert Aitken!
Recipient of the 2003 NFA Lifetime Acheivement Award

A native of Nova Scotia, Canada, Robert Aitken is globally known for his superb performance of traditional flute repertoire as well as a conductor and flutist of new music. Considered to be the leading flutist of Canada for many years, his musical influence and teaching has had international proportions with his scholarly interpretations and many performances of newly composed works throughout his lengthy professional career that spans almost 50 years.

His flute studies were with notable teachers – Nicolas Fiore, Marcel Moyse, Jean-Pierre Rampal, Andre Jaunet, Severino Gazzelloni, and Hubert Barwahser. Complimenting his fine reputation as a flutist, Robert Aitken has also established his reputation as composer with a wide scope of works that consist of: flute concertos, orchestral pieces, choral works, chamber music for winds and strings, solo works for flute, as well as electroacoustic compositions for flute and tape and ensemble with tape. He is a graduate of the University of Toronto. He won prizes at the 1971 Concours International de Flute de Paris and the 1972 Concours International de Flute pour la Musique Contemporaine in Royan, France.

He has also had an outstanding orchestral career. His positions with Vancouver Symphony Orchestra (the youngest Principal in the orchestra’s history – age 19), CBC Symphony Orchestra – 2nd flute, and Toronto Symphony Orchestra as co-principal. As a chamber musician, he is prolific. He is founder of the Lyric Arts Trio (1964) with his wife Marion Ross(piano) and Mary Morrison(soprano) and has had numerous performances with harpsichordist-Greta Kraus. He founded and directed the acclaimed Music Today series at the Ontario Shaw Festival and co-founded the New Music Concerts in 1971 – where he is remains Artistic Director. In 1977, he was one of 12 instrumentalists invited by Pierre Boulez to present a solo recital at IRCAM, performing his own compostitions as well as other works by Kazuo Fukushima, Vinko Globokar, Heinz Holliger, Yoritsune Matsudaira, Jan Morthenson, Thorkell Sigurbjornsson, and Toru Takemitsu. He has had numerous performances with the Marlboro Festival and Stratford Festival.

He has held teaching positions at University of Toronto(1960-1975) and 1972-82 at the Shawnigan Summer School of Arts in British Columbia. He also founded a 3 week festival in Shawnigan devoted to the advanced study of chamber music. From 1985-1989, he was director of Advanced Studies in Music at the Banff School of Fine Arts in Alberta, Canada. Since 1988, he has been a professor at the Staatliche Hochschule fur Musik in Freiburg, Germany. An internationally know teacher, he has given many masterclasses throughout the world and has many successful students.

Robert Aitken has recorded more than 40 recordings that include repertoire from the Baroque era to contemporary genres. At least 50 works have been written for him by many composers such as: John Beckwith, Elliot Carter, George Crumb, Manuel Enriquez, Bruce Mather, Arne Nordheim. Roger Reynolds, R. Murray Schafer, Toru Takemitsu, Gilles Tremblay, and John Weinzweig.

Classical Music Magazine has described Robert Aitken as “Canadian Musician Extraordinaire… one of Canada’s leading flutists, one with impeccable taste and extraordinary abilities to define and mold musical concepts.”

Robert Aitken received the National Flute Association 2003 Lifetime Achievement Award. This award was presented at the NFA Flute Convention in Las Vegas, NV on August 9, 2003.

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