Board of Directors
2024-2026 FSW Board of Directors
Lucille Snell is an active recitalist and teacher based in Waldorf, Maryland. She founded the Flute Choir of Southern Maryland in 2008, and the Flute Magic! Flute Camp in 2009. She retired from The United States Air Force Band in 2008 after 30 years of performing with the Concert Band. Lucy holds a Bachelors in Music Education degree from the University of New Mexico, and a Masters in Music Education from Indiana University. She currently studies with Laurie Sokoloff, retired piccoloist from the Baltimore Symphony. Lucy has been a member of the NFA Professional Flute Choir eight times, and is NFA’s incoming Flute Choir Composition Contest Coordinator. In addition, Lucy has been a performer in the Master Classes of Göran Marcusson at Wildacres Flute Retreat for 16 years. Lucy holds Permanent Professional Certification from Music Teachers National Association, and serves as Treasurer of the Flute Society of Washington, and Treasurer of the Music Teachers Association of Charles County. When not practicing, performing, teaching or attending flute events, she water skis, works crossword puzzles and reads.
www.lucysnellflute.mtacc.org
Sydnee Stein-Lalwani is an active performer and arts board member in the Washington, DC area. A playing member of the Capital Wind Symphony, the Capital City Symphony and the Columbia Flute Choir, Sydnee has performed at The Kennedy Center, the White House, The Atlas Theatre in Washington, DC, and the NFA Convention in the 2015 and 2017 Low Flutes Ensemble, and as a member of the 2019 NFA Professional Flute Choir in Salt Lake City, Utah. Her arts board work has included leadership as a member of the Board of Trustees for the Tysons-McLean Orchestra, as Treasurer of the Board for The Capital Wind Symphony and as the current Assistant Treasurer and former Treasurer of the Flute Society of Washington. Sydnee maintains an active flute studio in the Aldie, Virginia area and enjoys a crazy schedule of rehearsals, teaching and performing in the Greater Washington, DC area. Sydnee is originally from the North Central Texas area and is a graduate of The University of North Texas where she obtained her Bachelor of Arts degree in Music, Spanish and French. She lives in a cute little farmhouse in Aldie, Virginia, with her husband Rajan and her sweet dog Charley who is one of the resident dogs of the Columbia Flute Choir and attends rehearsals whenever he can.
Julie McDonald plans to graduate with her DMA in Flute Performance at George Mason Univ. in May 2024. Her dissertation, The Flute in the Chamber Music of Charles Ives, seeks to educate flutists about Ives and encourage performances of his music. Teachers include Julianna Nickel, Alice Weinreb, Jill Felber, and Max Schoenfeld. Mrs. McDonald has earned a place in the NFA Professional Flute Choir 2018, 2019, 2022, and 2023 and has been a member of the Woodbridge Professional Flute Choir since 2015. Currently, she is the Adjunct Flute Professor for Northern Virginia Community College at its Annandale campus.
Jim is a lifelong amateur flute enthusiast from Springfield, VA. He is a charter member of the Woodbridge Flute Choir and has served two separate terms as president of the Board of Directors for that group. He also performs periodically in a quartet with other members from the choir, playing bass, alto, and C flute. Jim has been an active participant in the Flute Society of Washington activities for over 30 years, including having served on the board in the late 1990s. He is a ‘semi-retired’ research physicist, employed for over 40 years by the Naval Research Laboratory, Washington, D
Dr. Linda Kirkpatrick is the Director of Instrumental Music at McDaniel College, in Westminster, MD, where she teaches flute, flute choir, conducting, music literature, band and orchestra. Degrees include a Bachelor and Master of Music in Flute Performance from the University of North Texas, and a Doctor of Musical Arts in Flute Performance/Pedagogy and Instrumental Conducting from the University of Maryland. Published works include The Pedagogical Techniques and Methods of Flutist William Montgomery, Edwin Mellen Press, 10 flute choir arrangements, an article for the Flutist Quarterly on safely operating a summer music camp/festival/ masterclass and articles for the 2019 NFA Convention Chronicles. She is the director of Flute Cocktail, a regional flute choir, and Lower Realm, a low-voiced flute ensemble. She was the director/founder of the McDaniel Summer Music Camp, which concluded in 2018 after 33 years. She is a three-time winner of the National Flute Association’s Professional Flute Choir Competition, conducted flute choir reading sessions at the 2007 and 2009 NFA conventions and is a proofreader for the annual convention program book.
As an active participant in the annual Mid Atlantic Flute Convention, she has conducted the Mid-Atlantic High School Flute Choir, led flute choir reading sessions and served as program chair. She is a frequent recitalist, conductor and adjudicator in MD and PA, and performs with the Mistral Winds Quintet. For more information, visit lindakirkpatrick.com
Andreas began his musical career in Brazil, where he studied at the University of Brasília and then completed his bachelor’s degree in Flute Performance at the Brazilian Conservatory of Music, under the guidance of French Professor Odette Ernest Dias. Andreas also received a Graduate Diploma in Chamber Music at the same institution being mentored by British cellist Sr. David Chew and studied in parallel with Cláudia Ribeiro do Nascimento (OSESP) and Michel Bellavance (Conservatoire de Genève). As a soloist of the Brazilian Marines Wind Symphony, Andreas performed in major concert halls throughout Brazil and other countries of South America. Andreas received numerous prizes at competitions in Brazil including Young Soloists of the Eleazar de Carvalho Festival and the Sargent Borges Medal, granted to the leader of the Sergeant Musicians Course of the Brazilian Marine Corps. He also received a full scholarship to pursue his master's studies in flute in the USA, awarded in Brazil by the Young Musicians in the Museum Competition in partnership with James Madison University in Virginia. During his master’s studies, Andreas won the JMU Concert Competition, culminating in a performance of the Reinecke concerto with the JMU Orchestra. In 2016, Andreas began studying at the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University, where he received his Graduate Performance Diploma, and the Peabody Career Award in 2018. A highpoint of his time at Peabody was his performance of the Nielsen Flute Concerto with the Peabody Symphony Orchestra. Andreas has appeared in recitals, concerts and presentations throughout the US, including the Global Brazil Conference at Duke University, Symposium on Brazil at Johns Hopkins University, and recent concerts in Nashville, Washington, New York City, Rochester, Boston, Seattle, among other cities. After being invited to perform as Principal Flute with the New England Symphonic Ensemble at Carnegie Hall in NYC (2016-2019), Andreas gave a solo performance in 2019 together with fellow CAI Virtuoso Competition winners. Andreas has been an active performer throughout the U-S, and his debut album Beyond Bossa Nova has been received with great acclaim to all audiences in the US and other countries. His most recent performances include guest appearances with the Seattle Symphony Orchestra, Lincoln Center's Mostly Mozart Festival with The Unsung Collective and the Kennedy Center Honors Concert Orchestra. Currently, Andreas is the Performing and Visual Arts Department Chair at Garden School, a vibrant and musical private school in Jackson Heights, NYC.
Dr. Ceylon Mitchell II (he, him his) embodies the 21st-century arts leader as a contemporary classical flutist, curator, educator, and entrepreneur. On a mission to celebrate Black and brown voices in music, his diverse repertoire and commissions span from classical to living cultural traditions across the Americas. He has performed in venues such as Boston’s Symphony Hall, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts with Robert Glasper, and the Music Center at Strathmore as an Artist in Residence. An avid chamber musician, Dr. Mitchell leads his own music collective, Raíces Negras, celebrating Black and Latine voices with contemporary classical and jazz music. As a music educator, Dr. Mitchell is the woodwind department chair and a flute faculty member with Levine Music, the Washington D.C. region’s preeminent center for music education. He serves as the Flutes on the Brink ensemble music director and Potomac Valley Youth Orchestra flute choir director. Featured on Voyage Baltimore, the Southern Maryland Chronicle, Canvas Rebel, and other publications, achievements include the Strathmore Artist in Residence, a Comcast RISE Program Grant, a Prince George’s County Forty UNDER 40 Award in the Arts & Humanities, and numerous artist fellowship grants. He earned a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Maryland School of Music, under the tutelage of Dr. Sarah Frisof. Originally from Anchorage, Alaska, he resides in Baltimore, MD with his wife and two sons.
Robert Cart is an international soloist and chamber musician who has toured throughout Europe, Asia, and the Americas. He has performed at the Tanglewood, Ravello, Wolftrap, and Aldeburgh festivals, and as solo recitalist at The Kennedy Center, Carnegie Hall, and Lincoln Center. An advocate for new music, he has premiered more than 50 solo, chamber, and orchestral works by Jennifer Higdon, Gary Schocker, Sergi Casanelles and others, at Carnegie Hall, The American Cathedral (Paris), and the Philadelphia Ethical Society. As a chamber musician, he is the founding flutist of the Marrazza-Cart Duo, a flute and piano duo, Éxi Chéria, a flute, viola, and cello trio. During summers, he teaches at the Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp in Michigan. He currently serves as Executive Director of the Marcel Moyse Society, and as a member of the New Music Advisory Committee of the National Flute Association. As a Powell Flutes Artist, Dr. Cart presents clinics and master classes and adjudicates worldwide. Robert is active as an academic leader, having served as dean of a college of the arts and director of a school of music for 15 years, and as professor for over twenty-five years.
Flutist Melissa Lindon enjoys a varied career as a performer, educator and entrepreneur. Founder and flutist of Patagonia Winds, Principal Flute with Avanti Orchestra, and flutist with the Georgetown Quintet, she has performed with the Mid-Atlantic Symphony Orchestra, Inscape Chamber Orchestra, Manassas Ballet Theatre Orchestra, and Rhode Island Philharmonic Orchestra.
A proponent of music by living composers, Melissa spearheaded two Patagonia Winds commissions of Mid-Atlantic composers, presented a Baltimore Composer’s Forum Concert Series program featuring a dozen wind quintet works by local composers, and recorded works by Garth Baxter on his album Ask of Me What the Birds Sang (Navona).
Melissa serves as Adjunct Faculty at Washington Adventist University, Howard Community College and The Music Institute at HCC, and co-directs “Flute-a-rama” summer camp in Takoma Park, MD. Also a certified yoga teacher (E-RYT500), she brings particular attention to breathing, posture and body awareness in her flute teaching, and presents “Yoga for Musicians” workshops at colleges, conventions and summer workshops along the East Coast.
A Maryland native, Melissa began her flute studies with her mother, Marlee Lindon. Other principal teachers include Marianne Gedigian, Doriot Anthony Dwyer, Jean Larson and Emily Skala. She holds an Artist Certificate from Southern Methodist University, and MMus and BMus (honors) degrees from Boston University.
WILLIE SANTIAGO is a passionate performer, educator, and arts administrator based in Baltimore, Maryland. As a performer, their skills range from playing early music on the traverso to experimental contemporary music utilizing extended techniques. Willie’s work as a chamber musician has been recognized on the regional and national level. They have performed at the New Music Gathering, National Flute Association’s Annual Convention, and the Mid-Atlantic Flute Convention with the flute quartet, Stranded Silver. Currently, Willie serves as the Manager of Programs and Resources for the Association of Performing Arts Professionals where they manage and oversee the logistics for the various programs APAP runs throughout the course of the year. Previously from 2015-2021, they served as the Concert Coordinator for the University of Maryland, Baltimore County where they oversaw the logistics for the Department of Music’s concert series. oversaw the logistics for the Department of Music’s concert series.
Willie received their M.M. in Flute Performance from East Carolina University and their B.M. in Music Education with Performance Honors from Syracuse University. They performed in masterclasses for Nina Assimakopoulos, Mario Caroli, Ian Clarke, Gary Schocker, and Jim Walker and studied with Kelly Covert, Christine Gustafson, and Lisa Cella. Willie was also a flute fellow for the Contemporary Performance Institute, National Music Festival, and Baroque Performance Institute.
Outside of their musical life, Willie is an avid knitter, crocheter, baker, and runner. They enjoy planning backpacking adventures and taking very long walks in the woods.