Erika Skye Andres is an active flute performer, teacher, composer and arranger, and writer based in Savannah, Georgia.

 

Erika has played flute in many orchestras, bands, flute choirs and chamber ensembles, as well as a soloist, and has played for recitals, concerts, conventions, weddings, church services, nursing homes, and many other venues for over twenty years.  She is the founder and president of the Savannah Area Flute Association, the founder of the Silver & Strings ensemble for flute and cello, a member of Ensemble 126, and is a flute substitute for orchestras.  Additionally, she was the soloist for the performance of her original band transcription of a concerto and performed at several flute conventions, including ones for the National Flute Association and the Florida Flute Association.  She is also an advocate for historically informed performances of early music on the instruments for which they were intended and plays the Baroque flute in the Savannah Baroque ensemble and recorder and Renaissance flute in The Goliards ensemble.  Erika is additionally a great proponent of new music, having been a performing member of the Flute New Music Consortium and a finalist for their first Flute Artist Competition.  And she enjoys playing many other flutes including concert flutes like the piccolo, alto, bass, and contrabass flutes and many different world instruments including the Irish flute and whistle and the Native American flute.  Also, she likes to dabble in flute repair and flute making, having studied with Jonathon Landell and the Vermont Guild of Flute Making.  She actually made her own flute that she plays as one of her main instruments!

 

Erika is the founder of Skye Flute Music, an online platform devoted to providing flutists resources for their performing and educational needs and to connect with other flutists.  Here she publishes digital courses, a blog, books (including her storybooks "Flutie's Family Reunion" and "Flutie and Pickle's Journey Through Time"), and sheet music all dedicated to the flute.  A dedicated teacher, Erika has taught asynchronously, in groups, and one-on-one and currently has her own private studio.  She has a lot of experience teaching beginning flutists and, as she was also a teaching assistant at Florida State University where she taught undergraduate flute majors, advanced students as well, along with every level in between.  She is a teacher for the online platform Lessonface where she has taught many different students from around the world. She also currently teaches music appreciation courses at Savannah Technical College, teaches sectionals through the educational department of the Savannah Philharmonic, and is a former substitute music teacher at schools.

 

Additionally, Erika is an avid composer and arranger.  Her works are published with Associated Music Publishers and Sheet Music Plus in addition to her own Skye Flute Music.  She has had two recordings of original works aired on Et Lux Radio, and her compositions have been performed on many concerts.  Her works are in a variety of styles and instrumentations including, among others, works for solo flute, flute choir, flute and cello, choir, band, percussion, piano, soprano and piano, clarinet and piano, violin and cello, and piccolo and tuba with video and synthesized audio.

 

Erika holds a Master of Music degree in flute performance from Florida State University where she studied flute with Eva Amsler and a Bachelor of Arts degree in flute performance and music composition from Armstrong State University where she studied flute with Lorraine Jones and composition with Randall Reese.