Flutist Erin Lesser has performed as soloist and chamber musician throughout Canada, Europe and the USA, and was hailed as a "superb flutist" by the New York Times. She is a founding member of Argento Chamber Ensemble, Scarborough Trio and Due East and performs regularly with the Wet Ink Ensemble. Erin is actively involved in the contemporary music world, having worked closely with composers such as Pierre Boulez, George Crumb, Mario Davidovsky, Tristan Murail, Philippe Hurel and Steve Mackey. She has performed with many leading ensembles including So Percussion, Alarm Will Sound, Sequitur, eighth blackbird, American Modern Ensemble, and the Locrian Chamber Players. She has also commissioned several new works with her various ensembles, and presented lectures and demonstrations on flute techniques of the 21st Century.
As a member of the Argento Chamber Ensemble, Erin has performed at the Kilkenny Arts Festival, Shanghai International Electroacoustic Music Festival, NY Microtonal Festival, Monday Night Concerts in LA, Austrian Cultural Forum, and the International Spectral Music Conference in Istanbul. The group collaborated with IRCAM in a festival of new electroacoustic works at Miller Theatre, NY. The group's first CD (Winter Fragments; music by Tristan Murail) was named one of the top ten recordings of 2007 by Time Out magazine critic Steve Smith.
As a member of the Scarborough Trio, Erin was a silver medalist at the 2004 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition, and the 2006 Yellow Springs Chamber Music Competition. As first prizewinners in the Artists International Competition, the trio was presented in a New York Debut recital at Carnegie's Weill Hall in 2003. They have toured the Midwest with Allied Concert Services, and have performed for the Dame Myra Hess Series in Chicago, the Kravis Center in West Palm Beach, Florida and the Focus Festival in North Carolina.
Due East, Erin's flute and percussion duo, recently won the 2008 National Flute Association Chamber Music Competition. They have been ensemble-in-residence at the Universidade de Campinas, Brazil, and the Yellow Barn Festival. The duo has performed at the Warsaw Crossdrumming Festival, Percussive Arts Society conventions in Texas, Tennessee and Ohio, New Music Festival at Western Illinois University, NYC PAS Day of Percussion, the American Music Center's Annual Award Ceremony (NYC), Columbia University Composers, and the 21st Century Schizoid Music Series at Cornelia Street Café (NYC).
Born in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Erin was the recipient of the National Arts Centre Orchestra of Canada Bursary for 1999/2000, and received first prize at the Canadian Music Competition that same year. Her performances have been broadcast on CBC French Radio's "Jeunes Artistes" series and New York's WQXR. Ms. Lesser studied with Robert Cram at the University of Ottawa where she received her Bachelor of Music Degree (summa cum laude) in 1999. In 2001, she received her Master of Music Degree from the Manhattan School of Music, where she was a student of Linda Chesis. She is currently pursuing her doctoral degree at the Manhattan School of Music. Erin is also a fellow in The Academy—A Program of Carnegie Hall, The Juilliard School, and The Weill Music Institute, and performs with Ensemble ACJW.