Marcel Moyse is considered one of the greatest flutists and teachers of the
20th century. At fourteen, he played in an orchestra conducted by Rimsky-
Korsakov. When he was 24, he toured the United States with the great
Australian soprano, Nellie Melba. Throughout his European career
(1910-1949), he was widely sought after as an orchestral flutist and played
under the batons of conductors such as Prokofiev, Stravinsky, Strauss,
Straram, Koussevitsky, and Toscanini.
He appeared as flute soloist with most of Europe's important orchestras,
including Lamoureux and the Société Concert du Conservatoire
and he premiered Jacque lbert's Concerto for Flute, which was written for
him. Among his friends, he numbered Enesco and Ravel. He won several Grand
Prix du Disques and was awarded the coveted French Legion of Honor. He was
also Professor of Flute at the Paris and Geneva Conservatories between
1930 and WWII and produced several teaching books through his publisher,
Leduc, which are still widely used today.
Co-founding the Marlboro School of Music in 1951 in Vermont with Rudolf
Serkin and Adolf Busch, he devoted the last thirty years of his life to
teaching the flute all over the world. Many of today's leading flutists
can be counted as former students, such as James Galway, Paula Robison,
Michel Debost Trevor Wye, William Bennett Carol Wincenc, Bernard Goldberg,
Robert Aitken and Julia Bogorad.
Now, with the availability of these videotapes, flutists around the world
can benefit from his dynamic teaching style. Paula Robison, former student
of Marcel Moyse and world-renowned flutist describes the tapes as follows:
"Those of us who studied with Marcel Moyse will always carry with us
the memory of his incandescent eyes, his gesturing hands, his wonderful
laugh - which he used, just as much as he used his keen intellect, as
teaching tools - drawing out everything that was good and possible in a
player. Each time I quote Mr. Moyse to my students I wish that they could
have seen him in action. I wish that they could be inspired by
him directly! Now, with the help of these historic films, that direct
inspiration will at last be possible."