Walfrid Kujala


Walfrid Kujala was an American flutist, piccolo player, teacher, and writer.
He was born in Warren, Ohio on February 19, 1925. In high school, he studied with Parker Taylor and played second flute to Taylor in the Huntington Symphony Orchestra, then studied with Joseph Mariano at the Eastman School of Music. He played second flute and piccolo with Mariano in the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra from 1948 until 1952.
Kujala was assistant principal flute in the Chicago Symphony Orchestra from 1954 until 1957 and then piccolo in the orchestra from 1957 until 2002. He also was principal flute in the Grant Park Symphony Orchestra from 1955 until 1960. In the Chicago Symphony, he played under four Music Directors: Fritz Reiner, Jean Martinon, Georg Solti, and Daniel Barenboim. He appeared as soloist with the orchestra on at least nine programs, often performing the piccolo concertos by Vivaldi. For instance, Claudia Cassidy wrote in The Chicago Tribune, "Five of the Chicago Symphony
Orchestra's front desk men were Fritz Reiner's soloists Saturday night in an engaging performance in
Orchestra Hall. Most surprising of the virtuosi was Walfrid Kujala, a tall man with a tiny instrument, who
explained by playing one of them why Vivaldi wrote three concertos for the piccolo, or little flute. It was
a model of classicism warmed by Venetian charm."
One hundred fifty of Kujala's students commissioned Gunther Schuller to compose his Flute Concerto to honor Kujala's sixtieth birthday, and Kujala played the world premiere with Georg Solti conducting the Chicago Symphony Orchestra on October 13, 1988. John von Rhein wrote, "If one responds most readily to the haunted, glissandi-rich slow movement and to Schuller`s witty finale for flute and piccolo, this is not to deny the effectiveness of the piece as a whole, or the virtuosity with which Kujala and Solti realized it."
Walfrid Kujala taught hundreds of students at Northwestern University from 1962 until 2012 and wrote dozens of articles for The Instrumentalist magazine, Flute Talk, and The Flutist Quarterly. In 1970, he founded Progress Press, which distributed his publications.
Kujala served as the founding secretary and later president of The National Flute Association. The National Flute Association honored Kujala with its Lifetime Achievement Award in 1997.
Walfrid Kujala died on November 10, 2024 at the age of 99.

Publications

  • The Flutist's Progress, Progress Press, 1970.
  • Orchestral Techniques for Flute and Piccolo: An Audition Guide, Progress Press, 1992.
  • The Flutist's Vade Mecum of Scales, Arpeggios, Trills and Fingering Technique, Progress Press, first edition, 1995, second edition, 2012.
  • The Articulate Flutist, Progress Press, 2009.

Articles

  • "24 Practical Exercises for Flute," Flute Talk.
  • "Advice for Future College Flutists," Flute Talk, 28.
  • "Beethoven, Leonore Overture No. 3: Audition Hints," Emerson Flute Forum.
  • "The Benefits of Inflation," Flute Talk, 28-29, Flute Talk, 25- 27, and The Instrumentalist.
  • "A Brief History of Flute Design," The Instrumentalist.
  • "Corrections and Clarifications, FQ Plus
  • "Embellishment Italian Style," Flute Talk, 12-14; originally in The Instrumentalist.
  • "The 5 W's of the Major Scale," The Instrumentalist.
  • "Flute Fingerings, In Homage to Henri Altès," Flute Talk, 8-13; originally in The Instrumentalist.
  • "Flutists' Common Mistakes," Flute Talk, 27-28.
  • "Fresh Ideas for Mozart Cadenzas," Flute Talk, 12-15, musical example corrected in Flute Talk, 31.
  • "A Guide to Trill Choices in the Mozart G Major Concerto," The Flutist's Handbook: A Pedagogy Anthology.
  • "I Have a Flute Dream!," FQ Plus,FQ Plus
  • "Into the Jaws of Inflation," Flute Talk, 10-12.
  • "I've Got Hungarian Rhythm," The Flutist Quarterly 41, no. 1, 20-24.
  • "Jawboning and the Flute Embouchure," The Instrumentalist, reprinted in Flute Talk.
  • "The Kincaid Legacy," The Instrumentalist.
  • "The Kujalas on Eurhythmionics," Flute Talk XXI/4.
  • "Learning from the Violins," Flute Talk XX/4.
  • contributor to "Joseph Mariano: The Man, the Artist, the Teacher," The Flutist Quarterly X/4, 4-23.
  • "A More Flexible Approach to Using Auxiliary Keys," in Selected Flute Masterclasses, 30-31.
  • "Mostly Meliorated Mozart," The Flutist Quarterly 22, no. 2, 26-30.
  • "The Murray Flute," The Instrumentalist.
  • "Music, Growth, and Change: The Beginnings of the NFA," The Flutist Quarterly 23, no. 2, 17-20.
  • "New Books and Records for Flutists," The Instrumentalist.
  • "A New Perspective on Note Releases," Flute Talk.
  • "New Solo and Study Materials for Flute," The Instrumentalist.
  • "A Performance Checklist for Debussy's Syrinx," The Instrumentalist, reprinted in Flute Talk.
  • "Performing Ravel's Daphnis et Chlöe," Flute Talk, 28-29.
  • "Piccolo Mobilo," The Flutist Quarterly XIV/2, 58-61.
  • "Reminiscing With Ernest Liegl," The Flutist Quarterly XII/1, 31-37.
  • "Shifting the Beat for a Cleaner Technique," Flute Talk XIX/8 and The Instrumentalist.
  • "Stress or Strain Forever," Flute Talk, 32.
  • "Syrinx Gone Wild," Flute Talk.
  • "Take your Pick: Winds of Change," Flute Talk, 18-21.
  • "Thumbs Up for Altès and Briccialdi," Flute Talk, 18-24.
  • "Tone Development Through Sostenuto-Legato Orchestral Passages," Yamaha Flute Sounds 2, 3.

Recordings