Flute at Penn State

The flute studio is made up of undergraduate and graduate music majors as well as students in the music performance minor. Each student in the Penn State flute studio will be offered an hour-long weekly private lesson with Dr. Seidman.

At Penn State Dr. Seidman emphasizes the critical mentoring role played by a teacher. During your studies, she will help you realize your hopes and dreams for the future.

Graduates of the studio pursue a wide variety of careers, including working as PK-12 music educators, flute professors, orchestral and military band flutists, music therapists, business-owners, music historians, composers, repair and flute design technicians, rock stars, and more!

Teaching Philosophy

I am continually inspired, invigorated, and fascinated by my students. I mentor and guide my students, regardless of their level or background, to recognize and accomplish the highest levels of flute playing and musicianship within themselves. Although the journey will be different for each student, all will master the flute fundamentals such as embouchure, breathing, vibrato, intonation, hand position, and posture. While we develop your flute fundamentals, we will work on a variety of repertoire.

I encourage my students to pick repertoire that they can see themselves in, and therefore are inspired to work on, while still representing the many different time periods of music written for the flute. Research into diverse repertoire leads to inspiring capstone projects that reflect a personal journey in musicianship.

My flute studio is inclusive, encouraging, diverse, and active. This is shown by the diversity of my teaching methods, strong studio camaraderie (we are all in this together), repertoire studied, the outside guests that come and share their expertise, and the multitudes of opportunities I strive to provide for my students: performances, competitions, outreach events, to name only a few.