Katharine Rawdon

After a quarter-century as Principal Flute at the Lisbon Opera House (TNSC), where she played under legendary conductors such Rafael Frübeck de Burgos and Nello Santi, Katharine Rawdon has redirected her energies toward creativity in performance—on modern flutes from piccolo to contrabass, traverso, and bansuri—videography, composition, teaching, creative writing, music journalism, and art-making. In Paris in 2023, she became certified in Integrated Practice, a wide-ranging approach to creative skills.

In 2022 she released the CD (flut)uações with recent works by Portuguese composers, including her solo flute work “Places I Go in My Sleep”. Her CD “Stepping Out”, including four of her compositions, will be released in 2025. Her music aims for a direct emotional connection through allusions to imagery and narrative, often including voice or extended instrumental techniques to enrich the musical texture and expressivity. Published by Delatour Editions, France, performances of her works have been well-received by audiences in Portugal, the United States, India, Australia, and Brasil.

In the U.S. she performed at Carnegie Hall and Carnegie Recital Hall, by invitation at two NFA conventions, and in the Tanglewood Festival Orchestra under Leonard Bernstein. She has toured India twice with the trio Syrinx : XXII, and performs regularly with Musicâmera Ensemble, in programs ranging from the baroque on period instruments to contemporary opera. She has given masterclasses regularly at Portuguese conservatories, for the Portuguese Flutists Association, for Powell Flutes in New York City, and in Philadelphia for the Primavera Fund.

Her principal mentors have been Gary Woodward, Annie Diener Zentner, Paul Verhey, Seymour Bernstein, and Pedro de Alcantara. She is on the faculty of ESART, Castelo Branco Polytechnic University since 2009. Her former students are active as flutists, teachers, conductors, and arts administrators across Portugal. In July of 2025, she will direct the new Wind Quintet program for advanced wind players at the Zêzerearts Festival (Portugal).

She holds a B.A., cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, from Pomona College, and a Masters in Flute Performance, cum laude, from the Manhattan School of  Music. She studied independently throughout Europe for a year as Thomas J. Watson Fellow. Her articles have appeared in Flute Journal (UK) and Serenade Magazine (India), and she maintains a blog and a Substack on living the creative life. She lives in Lisbon, Portugal, with her daughter and a quirky, piccolo-loving Weimaraner.