Spotlight | Utility Flute and Piccolo

Kayla Burggraf

Kayla Burggraf joined the Kansas City Symphony as piccolo and flute in the 2019/20 season. She was previously a fellow with the New World Symphony, served as Principal Flute of the Des Moines and Ann Arbor Symphonies and a member of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago. During the 2022-23 season she is playing Guest Principal Flute with the San Francisco Symphony for selected weeks as well as for their European tour with Music Director Esa-Pekka Salonen. She has performed as Guest Principal Flute with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and as solo piccolo and in the flute sections of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Lyric Opera of Chicago and Milwaukee Symphony among others. She has worked with such notable conductors as Herbert Blomstedt, Semyon Bychkov, Riccardo Muti, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Michael Stern, Michael Tilson Thomas, Osmo Vänskä, Edo de Waart and Jaap van Zweden among others.

Burggraf has performed as soloist with the Kansas City Symphony, Des Moines Symphony, New York Symphonic Ensemble Japan Tour, Chelsea Music Festival (NYC) and with Rice University’s Shepherd School Symphony Orchestra and the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Symphony Orchestra as a result of winning their respective concerto competitions. As a member of the Noctua Wind Quintet she has performed at the Kennedy Center as part of the Conservatory Project and won prizes at the Fischoff, Coleman, Chamber Music Yellow Springs, and JC Arriaga competitions.

Burggraf earned her master’s degree from the Manhattan School of Music where she studied with Robert Langevin in the Orchestral Performance Program. Previously, she studied with Leone Buyse at Rice University where she received her bachelor’s degree with Distinction in Research and Creative Works. She has been influenced by additional studies with Jennifer Gunn, Stefán Höskuldsson, Stephanie Mortimore and Renée Siebert