Described as a flutist with a lovely tone, a fine sense of phrasing and natural musicality, Patricia Creighton is currently Principal Flutist with Symphony Nova Scotia, a position she has held for 20 years.
As a chamber and orchestral artist, she has performed with such distinguished artists as Julius Baker, Robert Cram, Victor Yampolsky, Isaac Stern, Maureen Forrester, the late William Tritt, Peter Bowman, Steven Dann, Fred Sherry, Malcolm Lowe, Erica Goodman, Anton Kuerti, Peter Allen, Jeanne Lamon, Georg Tintner, Simon Streatfeild, Mario Bernardi, Grant Llewelyn, Denise Djokic, and many others. She is a regular guest artist with the Scotia Festival of Music and most Nova Scotian concert series and with the New Brunswick Music Festival. She has performed across Canada, in the United States and in Germany, Yugoslavia, Switzerland, Czechoslovakia, and Mexico.
Patricia Creighton can be heard regularly on CBC Radio. She has a compact disc of 20th century flute and piano repertoire with Peter Allen which was produced by the CBC. A portion of this disc was used to create a ballet for ARC Dance, premiered in May, 2000 in Seattle, Washington.
Her extensive repertoire spans from Baroque to modern in solo, concerto, chamber and orchestral literature. Patricia has been featured with the Vancouver Symphony, the Calgary Philharmonic, Symphony Nova Scotia and the Scotia Festival Orchestra. Past concerto performances include concerts featuring the Ibert Flute Concerto, Mozart D Major and G Major flute concerti, J.S. Bach’s B minor Suite and Brandenburgs 2, 4 & 5, Joan Tower’s Flute Concerto, Telemann Suite in A minor and Telemann’s Concerto for Recorder and Flute, Nielson Flute Concerto, Quantz G Major Concerto, and CPE Bach D Minor Concerto.
Born and raised in Kitchener, Ontario, she won prizes at an early age in the Kiwanis Music Festival-the Ontario Top Prize, the Guelph Spring Festival Competition, and the DuMaurier Search for the Stars. She received a Bachelor of Music at the University of Toronto, where she studied with Nora Shulman and Jeanne Baxtresser. During and following university studies, Patty attended the Banff Centre for the Arts and won her first audition to become Principal Flutist of Symphony Nova Scotia the year she graduated from university.
During her first year in Halifax, Patty won a B Grant from the Canada Council to pursue further studies in Banff. She has also attended the Johannesen International School of Music and individual masterclasses and/or lessons with the late Jean-Pierre Rampal, James Galway, the late Marcel and Louis Moyse (ten years), the late Samuel Baron, Robert Aitken, Robert Cram, William Bennett, Jeanne Baxtresser and Julius Baker.
Aside from a busy performing schedule, Ms. Creighton now shares her love and knowledge of music by teaching masterclasses and seminars and she also teaches flute at Dalhousie University’s Department of Music.
REVIEWS
“…absolutely dazzling, with an unfailing virtuosity…a very gifted artist, projecting all the nuances of musical expression and sonority…”
LePhare de la Pointe, Churchfield, NS, May 1991
“…nobody could deny the brilliant effect of her light, virtuosic tonguing in the Presto… and the Allegro that followed it as well… ended the program with an absolutely brilliantly executed pair of Venezuelan waltzes in which Creighton tossed off a quiverful of lightning bolts in the animated flute part.”
The Chronicle Herald, January 25, 1999
“…flutist Patricia Creighton joined Zhang for two pieces, skillfully adapting both her tone and her intonation to his. On her own she played the “Empress of Pagodas” from Ravel’s Mother Goose Suite, a good choice – and beautifully played by Creighton…”
The Chronicle Herald, October 1998
“…Joan Tower’s Flute Concerto… Creighton’s virtuosic display of its florid scales and arpeggios, many of them surfing the extreme end of the high register where the fingering combinations can be lethal. Creighton fired them off in a blinding spray of notes as though her finger was stuck on the trigger of an AK-47… quicksilver brilliance of the flute in its high register…”
The Mail Star, June 1997
“…Patricia Creighton took hold of the difficult Nielsen solo part with admirable technical flair. Her immaculate intonation and her singing tone, especially in the high register, served the work well…”
The Mail Star, April 1994
“…CREIGHTON BRILLIANT… Symphony Nova Scotia’s principal flutist Patricia Creighton gave a brilliant account of the (Ibert) flute concerto. With a richly luminous low register, beautiful control in the high, exquisite intonation and a light, sparkling French sound, she tossed off with pleasant ease all those prickly notes and technical shrapnel with which Ibert loads the bars. Her last held note in the Andante was as sweet as a bright star on a summer night.”
The Mail Star, November 1994
“…Creighton’s playing of the (Mozart) G Major Concerto was certainly elegant, graced with the kind of cultivated finish that she brings to her orchestral solos. The beautiful second movement… never lacked for a singing style and solid musicianship…Creighton’s (cadenzas) were tastefully brief and only slightly flamboyant in the 19th century style, but here again, the finish of her playing did much to soften their anachronisms.”
The Chronicle Herald, March 1991