Felix Skowronek Memorial Event
Saturday, November 22, 2025 | Time TBA
Location TBA
​
THIS IS A TICKETED EVENT
$10 Members | $15 Non-Members
​​​
~ ~ ~
​The Felix Skowronek Memorial Event is an annual event to in honor the Seattle Flute Society's founder, Felix Skowronek. The event traditionally features local artists and/or wooden flute specialists. Past events have featured performances by Demarre McGill, Jeffrey Barker, Evan Pengra Sult, and Janet See, among others. In the online 2020-2021 Season, the Felix Skowronek Memorial Event was expanded into a series of presentations, workshops, and performances by local flutists, teachers, and artisans. The event in its original design returned for the 2021-2022 Season onwards.
​​
The 2025 Felix Skowronek Memorial Event features Mehrdad Gholami, professor of flute at Western Washington University, in a recital and workshop.
​
CHECK BACK SOON FOR MORE DETAILS​​
~ ~ ~
​
About the Artists...
Iranian flutist Mehrdad Gholami received the presidential award and Iran’s National Elites Foundation scholarship to continue his training at the University of Tehran, where he studied with Dr. Azin Movahed. During his time in Tehran, Mehrdad won numerous solo and chamber music competitions in Iran such as Fadjr International Music Festival, Iran Young Artists Competition, and Tehran Flute Competition. In the U.S., He has won concerto competitions as well as being a finalist in Texas Flute Society’s Myrna Brown Young Artist Competition.
As an orchestral player, he started with Tehran’s ensembles such as Tehran Contemporary Ensemble, Tehran City Hall Orchestra and Tehran Symphony. Later, he came back to work with TSO as their principal flute player under the direction of Maestro Alexander Rahbari for the 2015’s summer season. Other orchestral appearances include Kaleidoscope Chamber Orchestra (Los Angeles, Disney Hall debut), Fort Worth symphony and McKinney Philharmonic.
A sought-after pedagogue, Mehrdad has served as an adjudicator on panels for National Flute Association, Texas Flute Society and Texas Music Educators Associations. He has offered masterclasses and workshops on various topics from beginner pedagogy to contemporary techniques across the United States. On high demand as a teacher, Mehrdad’s students have won national awards in addition to students having qualified for the exclusive TMEA all-state band every year. Mehrdad is the Assistant Professor of Flute at Western Washington University and coordinator of the woodwinds area.
​
Learn more at https://www.mehrdadgholami.com.
​Felix Skowronek (1935-2006) earned a B.M. from the Curtis Institute, where he was a student of William Kincaid. Skowronek was a founding member of the Soni Ventorum Wind Quintet and played as principal flute of the U.S. Seventh Army Symphony Orchestra, and the Seattle, St. Louis, and Puerto Rico Symphonies. He also played principal for the Seattle Opera's summer series of Wagner's Ring cycle. He served as professor of flute at the Conservatory of Music of Puerto Rico and the University of Washington. He was the founding president of the Seattle Flute Society and served as president of the National Flute Association from 1985-86. He was twice the music director of Belle Arte Concerts, from 1983-1992 and 1999-2004.
​
Skowronek acted as a consultant to the Verne Q. Powell Company. An authority on the use of foreign and domestic hardwood species for flute and woodwind instrument manufactures, he documented the tonal qualities of numerous hardwood species carved into wood flutes and wood flute head joints. His research, performances and lectures throughout the 1980s and 1990s contributed significantly to the return of the wood flute and the option of using a wood head joint to create specific tonal effects relevant to the specific genre of music to be performed.