Rena Urso
Lesson Feesfrom $75.00 / 30 Minutes
Promotions Available
About
Rena Urso enjoys a flourishing career as a freelance orchestral and chamber musician all over California. In addition to being on the faculty at the Bob Cole Conservatory of Music at California State University Long Beach and California State University Stanislaus, she is the Second Flutist of the Oakland Symphony and the Oregon Coast Music Festival Orchestra. She previously held Piccolo positions and performed on many US tours with the New York City Opera National Company and San Francisco Opera’s Western Opera Theater.
Rena performs frequently with many of the orchestras throughout California including the San Francisco Opera, Pacific Symphony, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Monterey, Marin, Santa Rosa, Berkeley, Modesto, and California Symphonies, Carmel Bach Festival, and Festival Mozaic. She has also performed with the Seattle Symphony, American Ballet Theater, Bolshoi Ballet, Mark Morris Dance Group, Hawaii Symphony, Detroit Symphony Orchestra.
As a versatile musician who has recorded for video games, television, radio, and film, Rena has also performed extensively with the National Tours of Wicked and Phantom of the Opera.
As a Licensed Body Mapping Educator, Rena presents workshops and masterclasses all over the world, as well as the course she created at CSULB, Body Mapping for the Performing Artist. Her popular monthly column in The Flute View covers a myriad of topics related to injury prevention and musician wellness.
An active member of the National Flute Association, Rena has served as an adjudicator for various competitions and performed at many of the annual conventions including those in Chicago, Las Vegas, Nashville, Anaheim, Minneapolis, Orlando, as well as this summer in Dallas.
Rena is a Course Coordinator for California State University Summer Arts with her biennial flute course, The Complete 21st Century Flutist, taking place again in July 2021 at California State University Fresno. She is also a frequent guest artist at the Iowa Flute and Piccolo Intensive summer courses and the International Piccolo Festival in Grado, Italy.
A native of Detroit, Michigan, Rena received her Bachelor of Music from Wayne State University, and her Master of Music with honors from California State University Long Beach. She is extraordinarily grateful for her mentors; Robert Patrick, Clement Barone Jr., John Barcellona, Anne Zentner, and her father, Santo Urso.
Growing up in a musical family with a professional musician as a parent and siblings who also were professional musicians, I was fortunate to have an excellent example of what a great music educator was every day. My father, Santo Urso, was the Assistant Concertmaster of the Detroit Symphony for many years, all the while teaching dozens of private violin students over the course of my formative years. When my future as a flutist became clear as a teenager, it was a forgone conclusion that I would begin teaching. I began teaching flute privately at age 16 and have been teaching ever since. Over the years, it has given me great joy to see many of my students blossom into fine musicians, artists, and educators.
My philosophy has always been and continues to be to teach the student not simply the flute. The invaluable direction and wisdom I received from my mentors has provided me with a solid foundation for my work as an educator, as well as gave me a wonderful mentor base.
With more than 20 years experience as an adjunct at CSULB, I continue to also work with younger talented students. Though many continue on and enjoy a fulfilling career as performers and educators, not every flute student will go on to pursue a career in music. I'm most interested in helping each flutist to become independent artists, and not to rely on me and my input, but to help them stand on their own two feet and build confidence in making their own musical choices. It is a pleasure to help my students develop and build the skills they need to answer the what, when, why, and how of flute and piccolo playing as well as develop a passion for what they do as musicians and educators.
As a Body Mapping educator, it is essential that students have all the tools possible to best ward off playing related limitation, pain or injury. With the growing concern of repetitive motion injuries sidelining musicians, this is vital. In addition to teaching flute and piccolo, I also offer Body Mapping lessons so that students can build a foundation of good overall use of self and bring that to their instruments and enhance their study of music.
I focus on the process not the outcome; if the process is sound, the outcome will be successful.
It's more about the journey not just the destination.
I do my best to instill all of this in my students to help them discover who they are as musicians and artists, tell their stories with passion, and be the best version of themselves they can be.
Currently accepting advanced students.
Master of Music, Flute Performance - California State University Long Beach, 1996.
Bachelor of Music, Flute and Piccolo Performance - Wayne State University, 1992.
Licensed Body Mapping Educator, 2013.
Favorite resources, listed alphabetically:
Books/Studies for Flute and Piccolo
Etudes of Joachim Andersen, Op. 37, 41, 33, 30 and 15
Clement Barone - Learning the Piccolo
Nicola Mazzanti - The Mazzanti Method, Daily Exercises for Piccolo
Marcel Moyse - Tone Development Through Interpretation, 24 Petites Etudes Melodique, and Exercices Journaliers
Paul Taffanel and Philippe Gaubert - 17 Grands Exercices Journaliers de Méchanisme
Body Mapping resources
Move Well, Avoid Injury
Amy Likar - The Breathing Book for Flute
Lea Pearson - Body Mapping for Flutists