Kara Kirkendoll Welch's playing has been described in Fanfare Magazine as "inspired…technique second to none…[Welch] coaxes her flute to produce the most gorgeous sounds." Kara Kirkendoll Welch has been a flutist in the Dallas Symphony Orchestra since 2000.  Maintaining an active performing career, Welch has played Mozart Concerto in G Major with the Dallas Symphony, Brandenburg Concerto No.3 with the Dallas Symphony and has performed as guest Associate Principal Flute with the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra. Welch enjoys playing chamber music with many of her esteemed DSO Colleagues in Voices of Change and many other venues. In addition, she and her husband, Bradley Hunter Welch, a world-class concert organist, have adapted well-known flute works into even more colorful works for flute and organ. She and Bradley are featured in Preston Hollow Sessions in their own arrangement of the Poulenc Sonata in which Bradley adapts the piano part to organ. She has been the recipient of numerous awards in such competitions as the International Flute Talk Competition, the Texas Flute Society Orchestral Masterclass Competition with Jeanne Baxtresser and the National Flute Association Masterclass Performers Competition. She was a featured soloist at the National Flute Association Conventions in Dallas and Kansas City and has been recognized in Flute Talk magazine. Her first CD, Ballade, featuring impressionistic flute works, earned critical acclaim in many publications, including Fanfare magazine, and is available in many retail stores and online.  She earned her Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Cincinnati, College-Conservatory of Music, and her Master of Music from SMU’s Meadows School of the Arts. Her principal teachers have been Dr. Bradley Garner, Jean Larson and Claire Johnson.

Education

M.M., Southern Methodist University; B.M., University of Cincinnati