April 2009- William Kincaid
William Kincaid, considered to be the father of the American Flute School, was born on 26 April 1895 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. His family moved to Honolulu, Hawaii when he was three, Charlotte, North Carolina when his father became ill, and then New York City in 1911, after his father’s death.1
He attended the Institute of Musical Art where he took flute lessons with Georges Barrère, and studied the piano. On 1 June 1914 he received his diploma. Later that year he was appointed by conductor Walter Damrosch to the flute section in the New York Symphony. He played with his professor Barrère while he pursued a Flute Artist’s diploma at the school, and received one in 1918. He then performed with the New York Chamber Music Society and served on the Board of Directors of the New York Flute Club as the second vice-president to this new club. 2
Barrère recommended Kincaid to Leopold Stokowski, and so he was offered the principal flute position with the Philadelphia Orchestra in 1921 mid-season. Apparently Stokowski fired the previous flutist due to his rehearsal behavior.3 It worked out for Andrè Maquarre because he went to play principal flute with the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Kincaid performed with the Philadelphia Orchestra for 39 years, being a featured soloist every season except for one, there was a total of 215 concerts that featured Kincaid. He performed such works as the Brandendurg Concertos and Suite in B Minor by Bach, the Mozart concertos, Poem by Griffes, Serenade by Hanson, and Night Soliloquy by Kennan.4
Kincaid became the flute instructor of the Curtis Institute of Music in the fall of 1924, teaching an average of five students a year. While there, he gave only three chamber recitals and no solo recitals, as the flute was not yet seen as a feasible instrument for solo recitals in American music schools. However, Kincaid promoted new music, just like his professor Barrère, and so he ended up with pieces written for him and/or dedicated to him. In fact, the Curtis Institute library has about 40 works dedicated to him (please see figure 14). 5
Kincaid had some of the most successful students in the American flute world, including: Julius Baker, Frances Blaisdell, Myrna Brown, Doriot Anthony Dwyer, Katherine Hoover, Joseph Mariano, Ervin Monroe, Donald Peck, James Pellerite, Maurice Sharp, Albert Tipton, Robert Willoughby, John Wion, and Margorie Yates. 6
The most important recordings by William Kincaid seem to be the Legendary Flutist recordings, which cover a vast amount of music in two volumes. Included are pieces by composers such as Handel, Bach, Platti, Mozart, Gluck, Saint-Saëns, Widor, Chaminade,7 Kennan, McBride, Vivaldi, Faure, Caplet, Anderson, Donizetti, Gennin, and an interview with William Kincaid himself.8 Such recordings are important because they exhibit a wide variety of style played by the father of the American Flute School. In addition, Kincaid promotes new composers in this recording series, some of which are still somewhat unknown.
Kincaid is probably one of the most influential flutists for American flute players, as somewhere down the line most have been influenced by his teaching. For example, Sarah Jane Young was a student of Chris Krueger who was a student of Julius Baker who was a student of Kincaid. In addition, the pieces that were dedicated to and written for Kincaid are great additions to the repertoire of the flute. Promoting new music, as he did, helped to make the flute a more visible solo instrument, as more and more composers contributed to its repertoire.
A student of Kincaid’s commissioned a piece after he died and had it dedicated in his name. The piece is a standard in the flute repertoire today: Copland’s Duo for flute and piano.
References
1. Demetra Baferos Fair, Flutists’ Family Tree: In Search of the American Flute School (Ph.D. Diss., Ohio State University, 2003), 64.
2. Demetra Baferos Fair, Flutists’ Family Tree: In Search of the American Flute School (Ph.D. Diss., Ohio State University, 2003), 65.
3. Robert F. Cole,”William M. Kincaid,” Flutist Quarterly (Fall 1995), 45.
4. Demetra Baferos Fair, Flutists’ Family Tree: In Search of the American Flute School (Ph.D. Diss., Ohio State University, 2003), 65.
5. Demetra Baferos Fair, Flutists’ Family Tree: In Search of the American Flute School (Ph.D. Diss., Ohio State University, 2003), 66-68.
6. Demetra Baferos Fair, Flutists’ Family Tree: In Search of the American Flute School (Ph.D. Diss., Ohio State University, 2003), 71-72.
7. William Kincaid, Legendary Flutist Vol I (Boston Records: 2003), B0000YTPPW.
8. William Kincaid, Legendary Flutist Vol. 2 (Boston Records: 2003), B00017LVX2.