Laura Chislett
About
Flute, 1980-82 National Music Camp and Flagship
Australian flute player Laura Chislett is a performer, educator, and recording artist whose work moves fluently across genres, eras, and aesthetic boundaries.
Laura studied at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music with Margaret Crawford, Michael Scott, and Richard Toop. Much of the ‘80s was spent in Europe, initially for further study and then as a performer at leading music festivals, including Chigiana Novità in Siena, the Festival Lucero in Paris, the ISCM in Luxembourg and Stockholm, the Galway Arts Festival, Insel Musik in Berlin, and the Festival del Flauto in Turin.
Ongoing musical collaborations have led to the release of ten CDs—most still available on streaming platforms—and to a substantial body of works written especially for her. She is currently an adjunct academic at the University of New South Wales.
Recent collaborations include work with Edward Cowie, Satsuki Odamura, Brad Gill, the Armistice Flute Choir, pianist Stephanie McCallum, and harpist Alice Giles. One of Laura’s 2024 performances was nominated for an APRA/AMCOS Performance of the Year, and she was a 2025 nominee for the Flute Almanac’s Global Flute Excellence Awards.
Her duo recording of improvisations with Edward Cowie, In Two Minds – Duo Menurida, released on the UK Métier Divine Art label, was described by MusicWeb International as “sensuous, inventive and often fantastic.”
www.chislett.au
1980 National Music Camp; from left to right, Laura Chislett, Alan Aungles, Virginia Taylor and Pru Davis
Q&A
Question: What are you up to these days?
Answer I've always combined performance and teaching in my career. Every day is different which is a luxury that I deeply appreciate.
Question: What was a highlight of your time in AYO programs?
Answer Playing in Holst's 'The Planets' in the Edinburgh Festival at the Usher Hall conducted by Sir Charles Makerras was definitely one of the highlights, but then, all AYO seasons were inspiring! To hear Joan Sutherland in her famous mad scene up-close in rehearsal was truly amazing (Sydney Opera House Gala concert conducted by Stuart Challender); playing piccolo in Tchaikovsky's 4th Symphony was exhilarating (conducted by Niklaus Wyss in Melbourne); and discovering the stunning wind writing in Schoenberg's 'Pelleas and Melisande' in Adelaide (Eric Schmidt in Adelaide)…I could go on…
Question: Tell us your best AYO memory
Answer There are many “best” memories. The Sydney season with Stuart Challender for the gala concert at the Opera House was definitely one of those. To experience Dame Joan Sutherland (the mad scene from Lucia di Lammermoor) and Stuart Challender conducting Verdi (La forza del destino) was unforgettable! Being part of AYO’s concert in the Edinburgh Festival with Sir Charles Mackeras playing Holst’s ‘The Planets’ was another.
Question: What skills, musical and otherwise, did you take away from your time at AYO?
Answer Each member of AYO contributes to something which in the end result is much bigger than themselves, the profound beauty and humanity of a Mahler or Shostakovich symphony for example. I came away from each season inspired to achieve more, to understand more, and to aim high, through hard work and determination.
Question: What is one piece of advice you've received from a music teacher/mentor that has always stayed with you?
Answer Very early in my music studies I leant that good communication is both difficult and very important. An innocent ill-timed or ill-considered comment can cause unnecessary hurt. The flip side of this is of course learning to absorb criticism, which is also difficult but very important.
Question: Which composer would you invite to a dinner party and why?
Answer I'd love to invite J.S. Bach to a dinner party. I'd like thank him for writing his wonderful flute sonatas and to ask him what he thinks of our modern Boehm system flutes. I'd also like to assure him that, despite the rather poor financial treatment that he received from Frederick the Great towards the end of his life, his music has endured to improve the lives of countless people around the world.