Heather Havens is an accomplished flutist who enjoys performing in orchestral, chamber, and solo settings. She currently serves as Flute 3/Piccolo with the Central Texas Philharmonic. Heather has performed with The Syracuse Orchestra and the Austin Symphony Orchestra. She has performed in world-renowned concert halls around the country, including New World Center in Miami, FL, Symphony Hall and Jordan Hall in Boston, MA, The Long Center in Austin, TX, and Kodak Hall at Eastman Theater in Rochester, NY. As an international performer, she has traveled to the Dolomites, Italy, for a distinguished five-week orchestral program during the Summer of 2019, where she gave dozens of orchestral and chamber performances. In the Summer of 2022, she traveled to Miami Beach, FL, to perform as an Orchestral Fellow with the Miami Music Festival.
Heather was selected as the first place winner of the Austin Flute Society’s 2021 Young Artist Competition, which gave her the opportunity to perform “Danza de la Mariposa” for Valerie Coleman. Additionally, Heather was awarded first place in the Utah Flute Association’s 2021 Sonata Competition for her performance of “Sonata in A Minor,” by CPE Bach. In 2018, Heather was selected as a winner of the National Flute Association’s Collegiate Flute Choir competition. This brought her to the annual convention held in Orlando, Florida, where she performed with a group led by Jim Walker. She was also a recipient of the Yamaha Fellows Program scholarship, bringing her to participate in the Eastman Leadership Academy during the summer of 2018.
As a community leader, she received a College of Fine Arts Seed Grant from Boston University to further her project as an Artist in Residence at the Boston Medical Center. Such Seed Grants are awarded to students with an innovative project designed to strengthen the community around them. She performed in Boston hospitals with Volunteer Musicians for the Arts, Inc., and has given chamber concerts to patients in the surgical unit of the hospital to provide a space of comfort and healing. Heather also brought music to the community during the coronavirus pandemic as she performed from her porch to socially distanced community members in 2020.
One of Heather’s favorite parts about being an artist is having the opportunity to collaborate with others. She has enjoyed playing with a variety of ensembles, such as the Russian Speakers Society of Austin (2022), the North American Youth Chinese Orchestra (2019), the CODA Ensemble (2018), and the Harvard Early Music Society (2018). She is also a substitute with the Boston Civic Symphony and New England Philharmonic. Throughout her education, she regularly performed with the Boston University Symphony Orchestra and Boston University Wind Ensemble, as well as The University of Texas at Austin Symphony Orchestra and The University of Texas at Austin Wind Ensemble.
Additionally, Heather performed with the Rochester Philharmonic Youth Orchestra for three years in her hometown of Rochester, NY. She appeared as a concerto soloist in her senior year of high school, when she gave the world premiere of a work commissioned for her by Russell Scarbrough. She graduated eighth in her high school class of nearly 300 students, and was honored with the Eastman Award in 2016. She has performed in masterclasses with distinguished flutists including Lady Jeanne Galway, Bonita Boyd, Paula Robison, Christina Jennings, and Jeffrey Zook. Heather received three diplomas by the age of seventeen, including two precollegiate diplomas from the Eastman Community Music School.
Heather has enjoyed work “behind the scenes” in both the flute and orchestral worlds. In 2021, she was an Artistic Operations Assistant for the National Orchestral Institute + Festival in College Park, Maryland. During the summer of 2018, she was an intern with the Development Team of the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra. She also interned with the National Flute Association as an Equipment Intern. In Fall of 2018, she interned with Flutistry Boston.
Heather currently maintains a private studio of about 30 students in the greater Austin, TX area. As a teacher, she works both one on one with middle and high school flutists, as well as in mastery class and sectional settings. She is also a Teaching Artist with Austin Soundwaves. Heather has been a teacher in the Making Music program, which provides private music lessons to underserved schools in the Boston area.
Heather’s primary teachers have included Marianne Gedigian, Linda Toote, and Joanna Bassett. She is a graduate of the Boston University College of Fine Arts (‘20) where she earned a BM in Flute Performance and a BM in Musicology with a minor in Arts Leadership. Heather received her MM Degree in Flute Performance from The University of Texas at Austin Butler School of Music in 2022 with a 4.0 GPA.
Heather performs on a Powell 9k body with a Powell 14k white gold headjoint.