Collection: Pellerite, James J.

A co-founder of the National Flute Association and performer on the modern flute, James J. Pellerite is well known as an orchestral musician. He succeeded his renowned teacher, William Kincaid, as solo flutist of the Philadelphia Orchestra. Previously, he served as principal flutist with the Indianapolis and Detroit symphonies; he also performed with the orchestras of Chautauqua (New York), Radio City Music Hall, L’Orquestra Sinfonica de Puerto Rico, the Minnesota Orchestra, and the San Francisco and Dallas symphonies. He has played under the batons of such legendary conductors as Leonard Bernstein, Pablo Casals, Neville Mariner, Dimitri Mitropoulos, Eugene Ormandy, Leopold Stokowski, and Bruno Walter. With Igor Stravinsky conducting, Pellerite also recorded his Octet for Winds.

Pellerite has written and edited numerous contemporary flute works and has authored pedagogical publications including the ground-breaking A Modern Guide to Fingerings and Handbook of Literature for the Flute. He  has also designed and built flutes and headjoints, working on projects with, among others, the legendary flutemakers Albert Cooper and Jack Moore.

In 2021, American Composers Alliance acquired distribution rights from Mr. Pellerite for the publishing catalog he founded.