Internationally renowned flutist Marina Piccinini, who has been a star in the Peabody faculty firmament since 2001, makes connecting across time and space seem effortless.
For years she has been commuting, first from New York, and after 9/11 from Europe, to mentor more than a dozen select students at a time in her Peabody Piccinini Flute Studio. Over the years these students—many of whom now perform in major orchestras and teach at leading institutions across Europe, Asia, and North America—have become like family, she says, and still collaborate with her from all over the globe.
Internationally renowned flutist Marina Piccinini, who has been a star in the Peabody faculty firmament since 2001, makes connecting across time and space seem effortless.
For years she has been commuting, first from New York, and after 9/11 from Europe, to mentor more than a dozen select students at a time in her Peabody Piccinini Flute Studio. Over the years these students—many of whom now perform in major orchestras and teach at leading institutions across Europe, Asia, and North America—have become like family, she says, and still collaborate with her from all over the globe.
“It’s difficult to explain because it sounds so insane, but I travel all the time to perform, so it just works,” says Piccinini, who grew up in Brazil, Switzerland, and Newfoundland, and speaks seven languages fluently. A Shaolin kung-fu master, she now lives with her husband, acclaimed pianist Andreas Haefliger, in a small village in the Swiss Alps near the birthplace of Swiss folk hero William Tell.
“It’s really important, above all, to choose the right students, students who are extremely motivated,” she continues. “Because when I am at Peabody we are up at 7:30 in the morning and it’s nonstop. It’s an intensive, highly focused environment.”
She leads many group projects at Peabody, including an annual Bach Flute Sonatas Marathon in which students team with harpsichordists from the Historical Performance Department. She also conducts many master classes and organizes concerts in collaboration with students in other disciplines, most notably composition and percussion.
“It’s such an intense connection,” she says of her relationship with her Peabody Flute Studio students. “Even after they graduate we do projects together internationally. I had a piece written for me by Pulitzer Prize–winning composer Aaron Jay Kernis for solo flute and eight other flutes, called Siren [an adaptation of the Greek legend that paid tribute to the sirens that heralded covid first responders]. And these are the people who play with me—my former students.”
One of the most exciting ways students connect with Piccinini has been through her summer master classes—an enriching two weeks she started hosting informally in Switzerland 18 years ago that eventually became a program at Peabody. During the covid-19 pandemic, she carried on virtually from Switzerland for two years. “We had about 350 people participating,” she says. “Everyone was longing for connectivity and it was wonderful.”
Now formally known as the Marina Piccinini Institute (MPI), the program has for the past three years found a permanent home in the Swiss Alps. In addition to immersing themselves in their music studies, participating students have a chance to hike, swim, and explore the extraordinary summer Alpine setting.
The institute’s connection with Peabody is deep. MPI staff include Piccinini’s Flute Studio teaching assistant, Giorgio Consolati, and Hui-Chuan Chen (MM ’06, DMA ’14, Piano), who teaches at the Preparatory and serves as staff pianist for the Piccinini Flute Studio. Piccinini also offers a scholarship that honors one of her most beloved students, Eric Maul (BM ’13), who died in 2024.
Piccinini is especially excited about an even more ambitious residency for Peabody students. In 2023, she co-founded a concert series, the Zauberklang (“magical music”) Festival, with Haefliger. “For years we’ve wanted a festival,” she says. “We know so many artists and we wanted to find another way to share the beauty of this place.”
Now celebrating its fourth season, the festival began modestly and quickly gained momentum, requiring her to find a real concert hall. Though that project is still in its earliest stages, Haefliger persuaded Pritzker Prize–winning architect Shigeru Ban to design a small venue of intricate woodwork to fit inside the town armory, which was available but couldn’t be altered because of its landmark status. “It will feel like going inside a Stradivarius,” Piccinini says.
Peabody is collaborating with Zauberklang to create short residencies for Conservatory students to experience living and working in the Alps and performing for festival audiences. An initial residency is tentatively scheduled for spring 2027.
“It will be like having a Peabody campus in Central Europe,” Piccinini says. “I’m incredibly excited to find more ways of connecting Peabody and my students to the different aspects of my life. My students, past and present, mean everything to me.”