Flutist Kelly Williamson enjoys a busy career as a freelance musician and teacher. She plays regularly for local arts events such as the Mayor’s Celebration of the Arts, Cambridge Culture Days, and A Day and a Night in Hespeler, and is a member of the flute and guitar ensemble Duo Calixa. Among its more recent engagements, Duo Calixa performed as part of the University of Waterloo’s noon-hour concert series and for the evening concert series at McMaster University's School of the Arts. The duo released its first CD, entitled “Caminos” in 2016. In addition, Kelly co-produced "A Young Flutist's Anthology", a recording project for students which features Canadian flute soloist Suzanne Shulman and pianist Valerie Tryon CM. The CD, on which she also performs, was released in September 2015. She performs with area orchestras including the Stratford and Guelph Symphony Orchestras. Kelly has been a dedicated private teacher for over thirty years, first in Montreal and now in Cambridge, Ontario, where she has lived since 2010. She offers private lessons, chamber ensemble coaching, and group classes, with instruction available in English, French, and Spanish. Amongst the recognition she has received to date, she is honoured to have been selected as a finalist for the 2016 Bernice Adams Award in Music from the city of Cambridge.
Born in Jamaica into a well-known musical family, Kelly began her flute studies at the Academy of Music Program at Mount Royal College, Calgary where she had many opportunities to play in master classes for world-class musicians, including the eminent flutist and pedagogue Geoffrey Gilbert. She moved to Montreal in 1988 to study with Timothy Hutchins and Heather Howes at McGill University, earning a Bachelor’s degree in performance with Distinction. She completed a Masters’ degree in performance at l’Université de Montréal in 1997, studying with Denis Bluteau.
Since 1996 Kelly has trained and specialized as a teacher with the Suzuki approach, studying in Japan with Toshio Takahashi and being appointed a Teacher Trainer with the Suzuki Association of the Americas (SAA) in 2006. She is invited to teach at workshops all over the world, including Canada, the US, Latin America, England, Tanzania, Japan, Europe, Australia and New Zealand. She served for ten years on the SAA’s Teacher Development Advisory Committee as well as being the SAA representative to the International Suzuki Association Flute Committee. In the latter capacity she participated in the revised recording for the Suzuki Flute School Book 1 (2018) with flutist Lorna McGhee. As the flute columnist for the American Suzuki Journal, she has contributed almost fifty articles to the publication. She has adjudicated for festivals, including the Kiwanis Music Festival, and been a frequent clinician in schools. She embraces working with flute students from age four to forever! She is also a devotee of hot yoga and enjoys gardening, reading and studying languages in her spare time.