RODERICK SEED FLUTE

Biography

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Roderick Seed is a British flute player based in West Sussex and London UK, who made his Carnegie Hall debut in 2010.  

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He graduated from the Royal Academy of Music, London in 2009. He won the "Paddy Purcell Award" - an Entrance Scholarship - to study with William Bennett, OBE. He went on to study with Lorna McGhee, the principal flute of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra at the University of British Columbia, Canada, where he also received a scholarship.  Previously, he has studied with Sebastian Bell, Kate Hill and Pat Morris (piccolo) and has participated in masterclasses given by international artists such as Emily Beynon, Emmanuel Pahud, Paul Edmund-Davies, David Takeno (violin professor) and Shigenori Kudo. 

 

In September 2010 Roderick was a First Prize Winner of the Alexander & Buono International Flute Competition (New York) and in October he performed at the Weill Recital Hall, Carnegie Hall.  He has also won prizes at the Royal Academy of Music Flute Prize, London Concerto Competition, BFS Young Artist Competition, and Portsmouth Music Festival.

 

He is the author of two books for flute players. His first book is  "Mastering the Flute with William Bennett", published by Indiana University Press in 2018. This is a book based on the masterful teaching of William Bennett, with exercises and illustrations. 

His second book is "7 Daily Vocalises", published by Tetractys Publishing in 2023. These are 7 challenging yet fun exercises for intermediate-advanced players. 

 

Roderick has given recitals and concerts in venues such as Snape Maltings (Aldeburgh Festival), St Martin in the Fields, St James's Piccadilly and Westminster Cathedral, as well as concert halls in Canada, Hungary, Germany, Japan and USA. He has played with Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, West Coast Symphony Orchestra, Postmodern Camerata, Prince George Symphony Orchestra, and London Octave.  As a teenager, he toured Europe as soloist in Malcolm Arnold's Flute Concerto with West Sussex County Youth Orchestra. He has played alongside flautists such as William Bennett and Denis Bouriakov and has been conducted by inspiring artists such as Yan-Pascal Tortelier, Leif Segerstam, Bramwell Tovey, Lahav Shani, Andrew Litton, David Danzmayr, and Jun Märkl.  

 

Roderick is a keen advocate of new music, having worked with many composers whilst still a student. He has premiered many chamber works by young composers and also a concerto by Nimrod Borenstein as a result of winning the solo award at the London Concerto Competition. In 2010, he gave a premiere of a new work written especially for him by Eddie McGuire at the British Flute Society Convention in Manchester.

 

Roderick is an active teacher.  He was Teaching Assistant at the William Bennett International Flute Summer School  and has also given masterclasses at the Royal Academy of Music, Liszt Ferenc Academy in Budapest, and for the Royal Muscat Philharmonic Orchestra in Oman. He has given classes and concerts in Japan, Canada, USA, and Europe. He was on the flute faculty for VSO School of Music in Vancouver and a jury member for the 7th Internet Competition of Young Performers "My Favourite Flute" based in Russia. 

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Roderick is an Altus Flutes artist and plays on an Altus 1807 AL flute with a headjoint hand made by Miguel Arista.

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He currently teaches at Greenwich Music School in London and runs his own flute retreat each year in the UK.  He has published a variety of warm-up and instructional videos for flute players on YouTube.