Joshua Smith
Head, Flute Department, has been principal flute of The Cleveland Orchestra since 1990. He received an Artist Diploma from the Curtis Institute of Music. A student of Julius Baker, Jeffrey Khaner and Frank Bowen, he has been a frequent soloist with The Cleveland Orchestra, including collaborations with Christoph von Dohnányi, Esa Pekka Salonen, Mitsuko Uchida, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Riccardo Chailly, Myung-Whun Chung and Leonard Slatkin. He is also chairman of the wind faculty at Kent/Blossom Music. As a coach and teacher, he has been asked to lead national and international master classes. He has served on the faculties of the Domaine Forget Summer Festival in Québec, the National Orchestral Institute in Maryland, and as a guest artist/coach for the New World Symphony in Florida. He regularly appears as a chamber musician and recitalist around the country and abroad, often with pianist Kathryn Brown as a duo partner. His other recent chamber collaborations include performances with soprano Lucy Shelton and pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard. He was appointed to the CIM faculty in 1990.
Mary Kay Fink
Flute, joined The Cleveland Orchestra's flute section in 1990. She began playing piano at age 6, and flute at age 10. Ms. Fink received a Bachelor of Music degree from the Oberlin College Conservatory of Music, studying with Robert Willoughby; and a Master of Music degree from The Juilliard School of Music, where she studied with Julius Baker and Paula Robison. She also has studied with avant-garde flutist/composer Robert Dick, with whom she recorded the duo Recombinant Landscapes for the disc Venturi Shadows. Prior to coming to Cleveland, Ms. Fink was a member of the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, the Madison Symphony and the New York Philharmonic. In addition to The Cleveland Orchestra, she has soloed with the Milwaukee Symphony (youth soloist); Concert Artists of Baltimore; the Ohio Chamber Orchestra; and the Bismarck, Madison and New Jersey Symphonies. In addition to her orchestral work, she performs in solo and chamber music recitals throughout the Cleveland area, often with her husband, pianist and composer Nicolas Underhill. She is a member of the Cleveland Chamber Collective, which commissions some of the work it performs. The ensemble recorded a CD, The Cleveland Chamber Collective Debuts. Ms. Fink was awarded first prize in the 1986 National Flute Association Young Artist Competition. The following year, the Association sponsored her formal debut recital at Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall. She has been invited to perform in four National Flute Association conventions. In addition to teaching at CIM, Ms. Fink also teaches privately. She gives flute and piccolo master classes at many colleges and universities, and was a guest artist at the 2002 Allegheny Summer Music Festival. In 2003, she returned as full-time faculty, coaching and performing. Ms. Fink was appointed to the CIM faculty in 2006.
Kathie Stewart
Kathie Stewart, called "stellar" by the Cleveland Plain Dealer, is a founding member and principal flutist of Apollo’s Fire: the Cleveland Baroque Orchestra. She is curator of Harpsichords at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, where she taught baroque flute from 1995 to 2014. She has appeared as guest soloist with The Cleveland Orchestra, Cleveland Opera, the Oberlin Baroque Ensemble, Tafelmusik, Les Délices, Quire Cleveland and Washington Bach Sinfonia. Also an accomplished performer on Irish and folk flutes, she is featured on Apollo’s Fire’s best-selling recording Come to the River, and on their newest CD Sugarloaf Mountain. As assistant director of the Seattle Baroque Flute Workshop, Stewart is an enthusiastic educator and advocate of the baroque flute as a mainstream instrument. In August, 2015 she joined the faculty of the Cleveland Institute of Music as teacher of baroque flute.
