Sonja Giles

Assistant Professor of Flute, Sonja Giles has appeared as a recitalist, chamber musician, and educator at a variety of venues across the United States and in Russia. She has appeared as a soloist with the Kalingrad Symphony Orchestra (Russia), Iowa State University Wind Ensemble, Ottumwa Symphony Orchestra, and on numerous occasions with the Iowa State University Orchestra.

Dr. Giles earned the Bachelor of Music in Flute Performance from the University of Alabama where she was a student of Sheryl Cohen. Her Master of Music in Flute Performance is from the University of Iowa where she was a student of Tadeu Coelho.

At the University of Minnesota, Sonja began a Doctorate in flute under the tutelage of Keith Underwood. She completed her studies with Immanuel Davis, Assistant Professor of Flute at University of Minnesota, and Julia Bogorad-Kogan, principal flute of the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra. She completed her DMA in 2005 with her thesis “An Interpretive Guide to Tone Development Through Interpretation by Marcel Moyse.” This research was supervised by Julia Bogorad, one of Moyse's prize students.

She has performed as flutist and piccoloist of the Cedar Rapids Symphony, Ottumwa Symphony, Tuscaloosa Symphony, American Wind Symphony, and Oskaloosa Symphony Orchestras, the Cedar Rapids Ballet and the Center for New Music (IA).

In addition to performing as soloist, orchestral player, and chamber musician, Sonja is passionate about performing and promoting new music. Most recently, she was invited to perform as a guest artist for the 750 th Anniversary of Koenigsburg/Kalinigrad, Russia, where she gave the international premiere of Jeffrey Prater's Promise for flute and string orchestra. In April of 2005 she premiered Chris Hopkins' Inscape and Relinquaries .   Last February, Sonja played the lesser known, Henk Badings' Concerto for Flute and Wind Ensemble . She has worked with composers: John Corigliano, Joan Tower, Lawrence Fritzs, and Martin Kennedy, and will work with Libby Larsen in Spring 2006.

Dr. Giles students have won competitions for the Des Moines Concerto Competition, the Nebraska Flute Fair, the Iowa Flute Festival's Flute Wonders, the Upper Midwest Flute Association, as well as various regional youth orchestras and all-state competitions. They have appeared in master classes with flutists Marina Piccinini, Tadeu Coelho, Keith Underwood, Piet de Boer (Munich Symphony), Vaslav Kunt (Prague Chamber Orchestra), and Jeanne Baxtresser.

As the director of flute activities at ISU, Sonja is the director of all flute activities, including studio class, Flute Ensemble, private flute lessons, and flute techniques class. In addition, she is the instructor for Freshmen Aural Theory classes. Finally, Dr. Giles is the new faculty advisor for Esprit de Corps, the music learning community, and Sigma Alpha Iota Professional Music Fraternity.