Kara Kirkendoll Welch

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.” Welch has been a flutist in the Dallas Symphony Orchestra since 2000. Maintaining an active performing career, she has played Mozart Concerto in G Major 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 DSO colleagues. 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.

Welch 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 at iTunes.

Welch 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.