The noted Swiss flautist, conductor, and pedagogue Peter-Lukas Graf has passed away at the age of 96.
Born in Zürich in 1929, Graf was a pupil of the noted French-Swiss flautist André Jaunet. He continued his studies at the Paris Conservatoire, where his teachers were Marcel Moyse and Roger Cortet; he later received the institution’s Premier Prix as both a flautist and a conductor.
He came to international attention at the age of 21, when his recording of Ibert’s Flute Concerto received a significant amount of favorable press. Graf cemented his reputation by winning First Prize at the ARD International Music Competition in Munich and the Bablock Prize of the H. Cohen International Music Award in London.
He was also appointed as the youngest-ever principal flute of both the Winterthur Symphony Orchestra and the Lucerne Festival Orchestra, and was later to conduct both ensembles.
As a soloist, Graf performed extensively across Europe, the Americas, and Asia, appearing with leading orchestras and at major festivals. He had a broad repertoire that ranged from canonic works to contemporary music, and his sound was a model of the French flute tradition typified by Marcel Moyse.
Graf was also a noted pedagogue and taught for an extended period at the Basel Academy of Music, where his teaching inspired generations of flautists. He was also the author of a number of method books and technical studies for the flute, which have entered the standard teaching literature.
He received a number of honors for his work, including a Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Flute Association of America and an honorary doctorate from the Academy of Music in Kraków.
Our condolences to Graf’s family, friends, and colleagues.