Christina Matthéi Flutist The German-American flutist Christina Matthéi was born into the family of a Hamburg businessman in 1974 in Paris. The press has reported on her “virtuoso bravura” as well as her “captivatingly beautiful embouchure to tone production”, and moreover that “a radiance emanates from this artist that deeply touches the hearts of her listeners.” Christina Matthéi’s musical education commenced when she was six. She received piano lessons, and then started to play the flute in addition when she was eleven. As a flutist she won First Prize at both state and national level in the “Jugend musiziert” competition several times, also receiving Special Prizes from the Hamburg Philharmonic Orchestra, and for the best interpretation of Contemporary music. Christina Matthéi studied flute with Prof. Robert Aitken at the Freiburg Academy of Music and with Prof. Angela Tetzlaff-Firkins at the Lübeck University of Music, where she graduated in the Arts in 2000 with a distinction. She successfully participated in numerous international competitions and master classes, in Switzerland, Italy, the United Kingdom, USA and France, among other countries, with James Galway, Aurèle Nicolet, Raimond Guiot, Julius Baker, Renate Greiss-Armin, Jeanne Baxtresser, Jeff Khaner, Paul Meisen and Susan Milan, and similarly as a chamber musician in Baugé (France), Le Kleebach (Alsace), and in Berlin with Horst Göbel of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. Her repertoire contains almost all the main works for flute. She is especially keen on rejuvenating the canon of works by performing new and hitherto somewhat unknown works. Above all for Late Romantic and Modern music, Christina Matthéi is regarded as a specialist. As a soloist she has made concert tours of numerous countries in Europe, Asia, Africa, North, Central and South America. With her Roussel Trio, Christina Matthéi has performed i.a. at the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival and several times on television. She was a member of the orchestra for the Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp international orchestra academy (Michigan, USA) and of the opera orchestra at the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival. Since 1999 the flutist has been a Musical Ambassador for Amnesty International. With the pianist Michael Theede, who later became her husband, in 1999 she founded the Duo Matthéi Theede. Ever since then, this has been the only permanent flute and piano duo of the younger generation regularly performing internationally. Christina Matthéi is a grand-daughter of the German tenor Heinz Matthéi.