Described by the Canadian journal Flute Focus as “...having
shattered any notions that the piccolo might be lacking in deep, expressive powers," flutist Christine Erlander Beard enjoys an active international career as a soloist, chamber artist and teacher. A passionate performer noted for her "great expressive tone and range" (Christopher Caliendo, composer) and her “...capacity to reveal the deep soul of a composition” (Martin Rokeach, composer), she has performed extensively across North America, South America and Europe, including fifteen conventions of the National Flute Association and three British Flute Society International Conventions, and regularly serves as a guest artist at flute festivals, most recent of which include the International Piccolo Festival (Italy), the Zodiac Festival (France), the Adams Flute Festival (The Netherlands), and international flute festivals in Costa Rica, Honduras, Peru, Ecuador, Guatemala, Portugal, and Spain, among others. Engagements for the 2021-2022 season include playing in the pit for the Broadway touring production of Wicked, serving as artist-in-residence for the Puerto Rico Flute Symposium, performing at the Salt Creek Song Festival, performing with Newberry's Victorian Cornet Band at the Vintage Band Festival, and numerous performances at the 50th NFA Convention in Chicago.

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Highlights of recent seasons include solo performances with the Orquestra Filarmonica de Mendoza (Argentina), the Orquestra Sinfônica de Porto Alegre (Brazil), the Orchestra Harmonia Mundi (Italy), the San Jose Chamber Orchestra (CA), and the Little Rock Wind Symphony (AR). Awarded Second Prize in the prestigious American Prize Competition's Professional Soloist division (2018-2019), Christine can be heard alongside the French piccolo legend Jean-Louis Beaumadier on his CD, Postcards: World Piccolo, Vol. 2 (SKARBO label); with Newberry's Victorian Cornet Band on their inaugural CD, Victorian Era Music for Brass Band by Thomas Coates (MSR Classics label); and with Brazilian guitarist Daniel Wolff on his newest CD, Iberoamericano (Novodisc label 2018). She joined her colleagues in Newberry’s Victorian Cornet Band as their D-flat piccolo soloist for the recording of their 2nd CD, Wind Band Music of the Gilded Age, which features Beard performing August Damm's "Through the Air" for solo piccolo and brass band (also on the MSR Classics label).

 

Devoted to chamber music, Christine regularly performs as a member of the Beard-Wolff Duo comprised of Beard and Brazilian guitarist-composer Daniel Wolff with whom she has toured in the USA, Brazil, and Europe. Never missing an opportunity to collaborate, she is often seen sharing the stage with close friend and renowned Canadian flutist, Christopher Lee; and closer to home, Beard has recently joined forces with Nebraska-based musicians Hannah Weaver, Jamie Reimer and Stacie Haneline, with whom she enjoys exploring old and new repertoire for flute, soprano, percussion and piano.

 

Passionate about collaborating with composers, Christine has commissioned and/or premiered dozens of new works from composers across the globe. Well known for her decade-long collaborations with British composer Matthew Smith, her most recent commissioning projects include joining consortiums for new music for flute by Samueel Zyman, Valerie Coleman and Amanda Harberg, and new piccolo compositions by Amanda Harberg, Jim Stephenson, and Daniel Wolff. During the 2019-2020 season, she premiered new works by American composers Jay Vosk, and David Loeb, along with the long-awaited Piccolo Sonata No. 5 by Matt Smith (UK). Her newest endeavor is to encourage music with social justice themes that inspire dialogue and social activism: #theflutistactivist initiative will bring forth three new pieces in 2021-2022: the first for flute and mixed media by Leanna Keith based on gun violence in the USA; and two works for piccolo and piano inspired by the USA’s southern border crisis and on global warming by prominent composers Herman Beeftink and Samuel Zyman.

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In 2007, Beard founded the International Piccolo Symposium (www.piccolosymposium.com), an intense 4-day workshop held at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. The goal of IPS is to bring piccolo players and enthusiasts together from all over the world to learn about and discuss solo, chamber and orchestral music featuring the piccolo, and pedagogical issues specific to the piccolo, led by some of the world's leading piccolo players. A member of the NFA’s Piccolo Committee and Scholarship Committee, and a contributing editor for the NFA's The Flutist Quarterly, her pedagogical articles and columns have been published in Flute Talk, The Flutist Quarterly, Flutewise, and The Instrumentalist.

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Beard earned her MM and DMA in flute performance from The University of Texas at Austin where she was a student of Karl F. Kraber. Her undergraduate degree in flute performance was earned at Arkansas State University (Jonesboro) under the tutelage of Joe Bonner. She joined the faculty at the University of Nebraska at Omaha in 2002 where she was named UNO’s Outstanding Graduate Mentor in 2011, and was selected as UNO's recipient for its campus-wide Award for Distinguished Research of Creative activity in 2019. A regular substitute player with the Omaha Symphony, she was added to the Sankyo Flutes international artist roster in 2016, and also became a piccolo artist for Hernandez Flutes in 2017. Christine plays on a 5K-DT Sankyo flute with an 18K Sankyo headjoint, and on a Burkhart Elite Deluxe multi-trill piccolo paired with a Quebracho headjoint made by Julio Hernandez.