BIO

Photo by Emily Ashman

While it was the pretty sound and shiny silver that drew me to the flute as a 10-year old, what’s kept me transfixed by the instrument and by music itself are the complexities and the connections. In music, there is always more to explore—deeper meaning to find, new nuances to untangle, and this exploration connects me to my own inner world and the world around me.

 

I’m fascinated with understanding how things work and what makes something beautiful. So shortly after I started on the instrument, I began tinkering with writing music because I wanted to figure out how music worked and how the magic happened. For me performing and composing feed each other and provide a loop of intertwined experience and inspiration—a loop that’s expanded with teaching.

 

Flutist/composer Bonnie Cochran can be heard on the soundtrack for the PBS American Experience episode, Edison, and also appears as the flutist in the HBO miniseries, Olive Kitteridge, and was featured on WCVB’s Chronicle for her community performance work with the Marlborough Cultural District Initiative. As a chamber musician, Bonnie has performed at the Ogunquit Chamber Music Festival, Assumption College, MIT and Harvard University. As a soloist, she has performed at NFA Flute Conventions in Nashville and Salt Lake City, and recently won the NFA Convention Performer Competition.

 

Bonnie’s compositions have been performed at Gore Place, Brookline Music School, the National Flute Convention and at Carnegie Hall. Her arrangement of Silent Night can be heard on Harpist Sarah Stuart’s Winter Wonderland CD.

 

With the Amaryllis Chamber Ensemble, Bonnie designs interactive programs that spark lively audience dialogue with the performers. As an orchestral performer, Bonnie has performed with Boston Theater Works, New Bedford Symphony and Boston Civic Symphony. She has also explored the flute choir literature as a member of Willow Flute Ensemble and the National Flute Association (NFA) Professional Flute Choir.

 

To cultivate the next generation of music lovers, Bonnie runs a twice yearly children’s concert series that incorporates dynamic age-appropriate activities to engage preschool-elementary school aged listeners. Bonnie also teaches lessons and clinics to middle/high school flutists and adults, and with her duo partner guitarist Bryan Wrenn, created the award-winning high school residency program InConcert— a hands-on exploration of music composition and performance.

 

Bonnie holds a Masters in Flute Performance from The Boston Conservatory and Bachelor of Arts degrees in Music and Religious Studies from Agnes Scott College.