Elsa N.

About Elsa
My name is Elsa and I have been making music for as long as I can remember.

My dad put me on a stage when I was 2 years old to sing with his band. I began playing piano at age 5, and picked up flute at age 14 because I had fallen in love with backpacking but couldn’t imagine a whole summer without making music.

I grew up in Gothenburg, Sweden, moved to Seattle to study Jazz performance at Cornish College of The Arts at age 18 and then moved to New York City in 2010 to attend grad school at NYU for Jazz Performance. There I studied with Kenny Werner, Peter Bernstein, Chris Potter, Andy Milne, Tony Moreno, Robert Dick, Ron Miles, and more.

My career
Over the past 10 years I have been a working flute player in the New York City Jazz Scene, playing my own original music in places such as The Blue Note, The 55 Bar, Cornelia Street Cafe as well as national and international touring.

I also enjoy playing jazz standards, brazilian music, pop and rock music and other peoples originals. What I love about exploring new music is the sensation of seeing the world from inside someone else’s head while making my own statement within that.

I am Adjunct Faculty at The New School teaching Rhythm from my book Between The Beats.

About teaching
I love teaching anybody who has a love for music on any instrument, as the jazz and improvisation concepts are not instrument bound. My favorite lessons to teach are ones where we together explore the music the student loves and look at what needs attention to get from where we are to where we want to be musically.

Technique, Performance and Interpretation
In lessons I like to focus on helping the student discover who they are as a musician. Together we will explore the music you love, looking at what it is that makes you love it and what you need to practice in order to be able to execute it in a way that makes you happy.

We will touch on every aspect of musicality we come across in this process, theory, technique, intonation and intent, interpretation, performance practices and more. To me, none of these things are actually separate, and when we look at them all together is when music can really come alive.

How a typical lesson will look with me
– Checking In
– Breathing and Long Tones. Pitch Manipulation, knowledge of what muscles create what effects in our sound
– Technique (scales, articulation, fingerings and any other things related to the music we are working on)
– Pieces. I ask my students to choose music they love for us to work on together. If they don’t have a song in mind, I will give options but it is very important to me that you love the song. You are the one who will be practicing it!

Specialties in teaching
– Improvising and conceptual work
– Rhythm
– Jazz Performance, Theory and Harmony
– Ear Training
– Flute Technique

My Teaching Languages are English and Swedish.
I look forward to hearing from you! Feel free to reach out with any questions!