Canadian flutist Marsha Elliott-Edwards is an acclaimed soloist, chamber musician, and educator. Marsha holds a B.Mus. in Performance from the University of Toronto and a M.Mus. in Performance from the State University of New York at Stony Brook, where she studied with soloists Susan Hoeppner and Carol Wincenc respectively. Marsha also spent a transformative year in the Professional Winter Residency Program at the Banff Centre for the Arts. Her past teachers and mentors have included Julius Baker, Emmanuel Pahud, and Jeanne Baxtresser among others. As a performer, Marsha has toured throughout Canada and the US and has been seen and heard on national television and radio.
Marsha is an alumna of the Victoria Conservatory of Music and joined the Faculty in 2004. Marsha’s teaching includes individual lessons, group instruction, adjudicating exams and recitals for postsecondary students in the Camosun Program and more. With students from 8 to 88 years of age, Marsha’s passion for music at any age is realized by her students’ active playing and participation in musical settings of all kinds including at the Greater Victoria Performing Arts Festival, performances at the Conservatory, local care facilities, and even in online collaborations with other students near and far.
In 2011 Marsha created the Island Flute Guild, a Facebook community, with the idea of uniting and inspiring flutists from Victoria and beyond. The IFG allows flute enthusiasts to post announcements of upcoming events, concerts, masterclasses and summer workshops. The group currently has over 1000 local, domestic and international flutists in the group. Please check out the Group at: Island Flute Guild on Facebook
In 2017 Marsha created, along with some musical friends, her innovative concert series, Salon d’Amis- “Music made by friends, for our friends”. Blurring the line between concert stage and audience, these concerts serve to allow the musicians to share their favourite music, ideas, and connections with each other and the audience. These concerts also serve the Victoria community by fundraising for important organizations such as the Mary Manning Center, Rainbow Refugee, St. John’s Ambulance Service Dogs program, among others.
Marsha is also the co-creator of The Big IDEA- an innovative project exploring the values and principles of Inclusion, Diversity, Equality, and Accessibility, and how they intersect with the whole of the Conservatory. From safe spaces for all persons (studios, concert spaces etc) to four fantastic, faculty-driven concerts beginning in 2024, the Big IDEA aims to enliven and elevate our collective voices.
Marsha gratefully acknowledges and thanks the Lekwungen People, also known as the Songhees and Esquimalt First Nations – past, present, and future – for their stewardship, care, and leadership on these unceded lands upon which she lives, works and plays.