THE FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY College of Music presents
Guest Artist Recital
Nicole Esposito, Flute
Natalie Sherer, Piano
Saturday, November 8, 2025
5:00 p.m. | Opperman Music Hall
Sonata for Flute and Piano
PROGRAM
Francis Poulenc
I. Allegro malinconico (1899–1963)
II. Cantilena
III. Presto giocoso
Chemin du cœur
Sonata for Oboe and Piano
Giacinto Scelsi (1905–1988)
Francis Poulenc
I. Elégie (1899–1963)
II. Scherzo
III. Déploration
INTERMISSION
Mnicakmun (Sounds of Water) for flute and piano
William Linthicum-Blackhorse
I. Mnicásniyanyanla (Rippling Water) (b. 1989)
II. Mnicáluza (Rapid Water)
III. Mnióhuta (The Shore)
Mayka: Concert Etudes for Solo Flute Jovana Damnjanović
1. Домdisturbed
2. Tišina
3. Igra
4. Čoček
Fantaisie sur La Bohème for flute and piano
Giacomo Puccini/Jean-Christophe Maltot
To Ensure An Enjoyable Concert Experience For All…
Please refrain from talking, entering, or exiting during performances. Food and drink are prohibited in all concert halls. Recording or broadcasting of the concert by any means, including the use of digital cameras, cell phones, or other devices is expressly forbidden. Please deactivate all portable electronic devices including watches, cell phones, pagers, hand-held gaming devices or other electronic equipment that may distract the audience or performers.
Recording Notice: This performance may be recorded. Please note that members of the audience may at times be included in this process. By attending this performance you consent to have your image or likeness appear in any live or recorded video or other transmission or reproduction made in conjunction to the performance.
Florida State University provides accommodations for persons with disabilities. Please notify the College of Music at (850) 644-3424 at least five working days prior to a musical event to request accommodation for disability or alternative program format.
A charismatic and versatile flutist, Nicole Esposito is the flute professor and head of the woodwind area at The University of Iowa School of Music. She has achieved a career as a soloist, teacher, chamber and orchestral musician on an international level having been featured across the United States, Europe, Central and South America and Asia. Esposito has performed at flute festivals and events around the world including twelve National Flute Association Conventions, the Oklahoma Flute Fair, Florida Flute Fair, Madison Flute Festival, West Virginia Flute Fling, Iowa Flute Festival, Atlanta Flute Festival, the LA Flute Guild Festival, San Francisco International Flute Festival, The Texas Summer Flute Symposium, FLUTISSIMO!, NSU Flute Workshop, Festival Virtuosi, Brazil, the International Flute Festival sponsored by the Brazilian Flute Association, the Santa Maria International Winter Festival, Puerto Rico Flute Intensive, the International Flute Festival of Costa Rica, the Spanish National Flute Convention, Bogotá Flute Festival, the International Flute Congress of Argentina, Chilean Flute Encounter, the European Piccolo Festival in Slovenia, the Adams Flute Festival in Holland, Flute Forum in Luxembourg, the Canadian Flute Convention and the British Flute Society Convention.
In addition to her teaching position at The University of Iowa, Esposito has served on the faculties of the Interlochen Arts Camp, the University of Wisconsin-Platteville and held a guest teaching residency at the University of Michigan. She has given numerous master classes at prestigious universities and conservatories in the United States and abroad including the Geneva Conservatory, Royal Danish Academy, Madrid Royal Conservatory, Mannheim Hochshule, Milan Civic Music School and many others. As an orchestral musician, Esposito has performed under some of the worlds leading conductors, including James Conlon, David Zinman, Gunther Schuller, and Robert Spano. Former principal flute with the Dubuque Symphony Orchestra, she has also performed with the Quad City Symphony, Cedar Rapids Symphony, Waterloo-Cedar Falls Symphony, Youngstown (OH) Symphony, and the Johnstown and Westmoreland (PA) Symphony Orchestras. Esposito has held the Piccolo Fellowship at the Aspen Music Festival and has also been Principal Flute of the Ohio Light Opera. She has participated in a number of other music festivals including the Brevard Music Center, The Youth Orchestra of the Americas, and the National Orchestral Institute.
Esposito holds degrees from Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Michigan. She has been a finalist or prizewinner in several prestigious competitions including the National Flute Association’s Young Artist, Piccolo Artist, and Orchestral Competitions, the WAMSO Competition sponsored by the Minnesota Orchestra, and the Houston Symphony Ima Hogg Competition. Additionally she has published articles on Banddirector.com, The Flutist Quarterly, Flute Focus and Flute Talk Magazines and can be heard on the Albany Records, MSR Classics and Con Brio Recordings labels. Her primary flute teachers include Jeanne Baxtresser, Amy Porter, Marianne Gedigian, Jennifer Steele, and Catherine Payne, with additional study with Mark Sparks, Alberto Almarza, and Doriot Anthony Dwyer.
Nicole Esposito performs on the 14k Miyazawa flute and the Hammig Piccolo, Mancke Headjoints and is an endorser of the LefreQue sound bridges for wind instruments.
Dynamic pianist Natalie Sherer thrives in collaboration with singers and instrumentalists alike. She began her role as Assistant Professor of Vocal Coaching & Collaborative Artist at Florida State University in 2022. In January, Sherer will make her Carnegie Hall debut as a performer in SongStudio 2024. Sherer was a performer for CollabFest 2023, the annual conference for the International Keyboard Collaborative Arts Society (IKCAS), and in 2022, Sherer was a Brown Loranger Fellow at SongFest and an emerging artist in Sparks & Wiry Cries’ NYC SongSLAM Festival. After joining the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS) 2020 Intern Program, she performed in multiple presentations at the NATS 2022 National Conference. She recently premiered “Sorrow & Ecstasy: The Complete Songs of Henri Duparc,” a semi-staged musical narrative following four characters’ journeys of love and lament. Sherer hosts the CollabPiano Podcast which celebrates art song and the collaboration between pianists and singers. Season two was supported by FSU’s First Year Assistant Professor Grant. A frequent recitalist, she has recently performed in events and master classes taught by Graham Johnson, Jake Heggie, Nicholas Phan, and Thomas Hampson. In 2019, Sherer performed at the Prague Summer Nights Festival and was a Vocal Chamber Music Fellow for the Collaborative Arts Institute of Chicago (CAIC). Sherer earned a DMA in Collaborative Piano, studying with renowned pianist Martin Katz, from the University of Michigan, and completed BM and MM degrees in Piano Performance through studies at Manhattan School of Music, Wheaton College, and Roosevelt University.