Horsfall Competition | Seattle Flute Society

Frank and Lu Horsfall Competition

The Frank and Lu Horsfall Competition is an annual competition for flutists in grades 6-12 sponsored by the Seattle Flute Society. Applicants must be currently studying with a private flute teacher, and both the applicant and the teacher must be members of Seattle Flute Society.

Information about the 2026 Competition is available below;
applications will open in the fall.

Horsfall Competition Finals
Saturday, March 7, 2026 | 12:00pm-6:00pm

Phinney Ridge Lutheran Church (Tentative)

THIS IS A FREE EVENT

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Terri Sundberg in Recital

Sunday, March 8, 2026 | 1:30pm

Phinney Ridge Lutheran Church (Tentative)

THIS IS A TICKETED EVENT

$10 Members | $15 Non-Members

FREE for Horsfall Competitors Plus One (1) Guest Each

2026 Adjudicators

Upper Division: Terri Sundberg

Terri Sundberg is professor of flute at the University of North Texas College of Music and a member of the Crested Butte Opera Orchestra and Crested Butte Festival Symphony Orchestra. She has been a featured concerto soloist at the Jeju International Music Festival in Korea, recipient of a State Department grant for recent performing and teaching in China and has performed extensively in New York City as soloist, chamber and orchestral musician, including performances at Lincoln Center/Alice Tully Hall, Merkin Concert Hall and Carnegie Hall. She is a former member of the North Coast Chamber Players, a mixed wind/string chamber ensemble in-residence on the West Coast.

Professor Sundberg has served as faculty at several international music festivals, and has presented masterclasses and performed solo and chamber recitals across the United States and abroad, including concerts in China, Korea, South Africa, Mexico, Austria, Ireland, England, France, Kosovo, and the Philippines. She has been a guest artist at flute festivals across the United States, including St. Louis, New Mexico, Illinois, Iowa, California, Oklahoma and Texas, and has been a featured artist, teacher, and adjudicator at numerous National Flute Association conventions. She has played principal flute with the Orchestra Sinfonica de Mineria in Mexico City, Eisenstadter Sommerakademie in Austria, New Hampshire Music Festival Orchestra, and also has played with the Fort Worth Symphony, Dallas Opera, Oklahoma City Philharmonic, and Metropolitan Ballet Orchestra.

Professor Sundberg’s students have won numerous professional orchestra and premier military band positions, tenure track and lecturer university positions, summer festival positions, fellowships, and prizes in competitions. Prizes include 1st prizes in the N.F.A. (National Flute Association) Orchestral Excerpt Competition, N.F.A. Piccolo Artist Competition, Myrna W. Brown Artist Flute Competition, Mid-South Flute Competition, Upper Midwest Flute Competition, Kentucky Young Artist Competition, Central Ohio Young Artist, Florida Collegiate Young Artist, Kentucky Flute Society Young Artist, Atlanta Flute Club Young Artist, San Diego Flute Guild Artist Gold Competition, Music Teacher’s National Association Young Artist Competition, Texas Music Teachers Instrumental Concerto Competition, Texas Music Teachers Solo Repertoire Competition, Entergy Music Competition, UNT Concerto Competition, Chautauqua Sigma Alpha Iota Concerto Competition, Irvin Monroe Flute Competition, Alexander & Buono International Flute Competition, and the Rotary Fellowship Competition.

Terri Sundberg attended the Yale University School of Music, Royal Conservatory of Music Orchestral Training Program, and Lawrence Conservatory. Her principal teachers have included Jeanne Baxtresser, Thomas Nyfenger, Ernestine Whitman, James Walker, and Timothy Day. She is a co-author of "Children After War: A Novel Approach to Promoting Resilience Through Music" recently highlighted in the Traumatology journal, and has great passion for her work on the board of the Shropshire Music Foundation, whose mission is to foster ethnic tolerance, promote peace, and improve the quality of life for children and adolescents of wartorn countries through the establishment of ongoing music education and performance programs: www.TeachingChildrenPeace.org. She has also served on the Board of Directors of the National Flute Association.

Lower Division: Alicia DiDonato Paulsen

Originally from Stoneham, Massachusetts, Alicia DiDonato Paulsen is the Assistant Principal Flute of the Oregon Symphony. Prior to moving to Portland, Alicia had a long and varied freelance career in Boston, where she was a member of the Boston Modern Orchestra Project and Opera Boston orchestras. In-and-around Boston, Alicia was also the Principal Flute for Boston Musica Viva, Radius Ensemble, the Firebird Ensemble, and frequently appeared with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and Boston Pops.

From 1998 to 2001, following her studies at the Hartt School with John Wion, Alicia was a member of the New World Symphony. She was a Tanglewood Music Center Fellow during the 1999 and 2000 summer seasons, and appeared as a New Fromm Player at Tanglewood in 2005. In 2003, she obtained her M.M. from the New England Conservatory, where she studied with Fenwick Smith. She has participated in the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, the Aspen Music Festival, and the Rockport Chamber Music Festival, and has performed internationally in Costa Rica, Russia, and the Netherlands.

Alicia’s chamber music collaborations include appearances with the Emerson String Quartet and the Borromeo String Quartet. Additionally, she has appeared as a concerto soloist with the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, the Santa Fe Symphony, and the New World Symphony. She won first prize at the 2005 Mid-South Flute Society Young Artist Competition, the 2003 James Pappoutsakis Memorial Flute Competition, and the 1999 Frank Bowen Competition. In 2006, Alicia won third prize in the National Flute Association Young Artist Competition.

When she’s not performing with the symphony, Alicia can be found gardening, eating chocolate, reading science fiction, yelling karaoke, and running after her two kids. She and her husband Dwane love the Oregon craft brewing scene, and make their home in NE Portland.

Horsfall History

Frank H. Horsfall (1883-1968) was a prominent Pacific Northwest musician who directly or indirectly influenced a great many flutists locally and nationally. He was in the Seattle Symphony for 46 continuous seasons (35 of those as Principal), a member of the University of Washington faculty for 20 years, and a friend and colleague of many renowned artists. He was a sought-after obbligatist for stars such as Lily Pons, Lauritz Melchior, Patrice Munzel and Martha Graham. He also enjoyed playing in the Western Washington Fair Band every September for 25 years and marching with the Nile Temple Band at conventions and parades whenever his busy schedule would allow it. He had many offers to join major eastern symphonies, but chose to stay with the students and musical associations in his beloved Northwest. His greatest pleasure was in teaching. He taught for nearly 60 years and many of his students gained prominence of their own in famous orchestras across the country.

Frank Horsfall with students

Frank was born in Tacoma of English parents who had emigrated from Yorkshire in 1867. When Washington became a state in 1889 his father was a Tacoma Councilman. After the 8th grade, Frank left school and entered into a four-year apprenticeship to become a machinist. On the side, he learned to play a fife, talked his way into a fife-and-drum corps, bought a $2 piccolo and a $10 flute and began his musical career. He set aside one third of his wages for lessons and would search out any appropriate music professional who came within reach, for good teachers were hard to find. He also took several off-hours business courses in order to manage his future financial affairs. All his life, he looked for ways to learn, improve and expand his knowledge.

In 1901 he became a journeyman machinist and worked at that trade with music as an avocation. At age 22, having also learned to play the saxophone, he put aside machinist tools to play flute and sax in local dance orchestras. The big break came in 1909 - an invitation to be a member of the original Seattle Symphony Orchestra. To augment his symphony income he taught a few lessons and played in park bands, dance bands and pit orchestras for vaudeville, ballets and musical comedies. He and two other flutists even formed an act, "The Three Magic Flutes", and toured for a short time on the Orpheum vaudeville circuit. During World War I he was a machinist at the shipyard by day and a musician by night, but when the war ended he again devoted his full attention to music.

Lulu C. Smith (1889-1983) was born in Minneapolis of Norwegian and German parents who moved to Tacoma when she was a toddler. She became an expert pianist and Frank's favorite dancing partner. They were married in 1913 and she shared his life for 55 years thereafter, creating a loving home for their two sons and a supportive atmosphere for her musician husband. She was continuously active in school and university organizations and in music circles. Lu was a talented artist, seamstress and cook. The students who sat in her warm kitchen waiting for their lessons appreciated her cheery ways.

Frank's long career encompassed many activities and interests. He was a business manager, real estate entrepreneur, artistic photographer and lifelong adventurer. In 1920 he and Lu went up the inside coast of British Columbia in a small outboard boat, camping on the wild beaches each night. He climbed Mt. Rainier in 1925, starting from the Longmire's residence, where Lu helped attend to those waiting for the return of the hiking party. One summer he and three other musicians hiked 300 miles through Glacier National Park. Each evening they would haul out their instruments to entertain fellow campers. When over 80 years old, he photographed Kauai's Waimea Canyon leaning out of an open helicopter.

An outgoing man, with effervescence and enthusiasm, he was never one to hold back if the opportunity came along to make new friends. After a concert by the touring London Philharmonic Orchestra, for example, he went backstage to meet the flute section. That evening, after taking them on a tour of Seattle, they all ended up in his basement studio playing music from his library and enjoying Lu's gracious hospitality.

In the mid-30's, he joined with the principal clarinet and oboe players of the symphony, both teachers interested in youth, to form the Seattle Symphony Woodwind Trio. They are still remembered for the humorous and educational music-appreciation programs they put on at countless school assemblies.

Certainly he was proud of what he was able to achieve in his lifetime, but he took the most pride in the accomplishments of his students. As their lives progressed, he would follow their advancements with the interest of a parent. Julius Baker, during one visit to the Seattle Flute Society, mentioned his long acquaintance with Frank and commented, "Bill Kincaid and I envied Frank's natural rapport and easy way with young people -- he loved his students and they loved him."

His last private lesson was given just three months before his death in March 1968, at the age of 84. Lu, blessed with good health and a bright-side philosophy, continued to lead an active life until her death in November 1983, at 94.

The Seattle Flute Society's Frank and Lu Horsfall Competition helps perpetuate their memory and the influence they had on the musical history of the Pacific Northwest.

-- Contributed by John Horsfall

Past Winners