Now celebrating its 16th year, the Marina Piccinini International Masterclasses (MPIMC) were founded in 2008 as an extension of the Piccinini flute masterclasses that were held in the baroque Muraltengut Mansion on the edge of the Zurich Lake in Switzerland from 1996 until the foundation ceased in 2006.
From its inception until 2016, the week-long sessions were held in Griswold Hall at the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University, with students and faculty alike housed within the gated community in the historic Mount Vernon district of Baltimore. .
In 2017, MPIMC began a new partnership with the New World Symphony, housing the classes in Frank Gehry’s glamorous New World Center in Miami Beach.
In 2020 and 2021, during the height of the Corona-virus pandemic and lockdown, MPIMC led the way and adapted the classes to an entirely online platform, reaching flutists and enthusiasts around the entire world. This enterprise was so successful that a second, Asian class was held online in November 2020. In 2021, as the pandemic was still affecting international travel, MPIMC continued its online presence with a special Paganini Caprices installment streamed from Venice, Italy.
In 2022 the world began to edge its way slowly back to in-person events, and so MPIMC made yet another iconic shift, hosting for the first time classes on the secluded grounds of of Potash Hill in southern Vermont, newly purchased by the Marlboro Festival where Marina has had a long and ongoing musical and personal conncetion, and historically dated back to the Marcel mouse masterclasses.
2024 marks a new chapter for MPIMC in its nomadic history, in Bürglen, Uri, Switzerland- the magical and mythical birthplace of William Tell, and the setting for Zauberklang.
Throughout the years, MPIMC has been at the forefront of creating and expanding opportunities for its participants. 2024 will see the return of the MPIMC Concerto Competition in collaboration with the Farnborough Symphony in the UK.
Apart from the MIA (most Improved award) we also implemented the MPIMC and Galway Awards, a collaborative exchange with the Galway Academy in Switzerland.
MPIMC has been fortunate to receive support from many fellow artists, flutemakers and individuals throughout the years, both in financial and artistic terms. Guests have included guest performers, teachers, lecturers, flutemakers, judges, interviewees, and people from the private sector, including Hilary Hahn, Marin Alsop, Claire Chase, Jeanne Baxtresser, James Walker, Meng Su, Svet Stoyanov, Jennifer Grimm, Laurie Sokoloff, Brook Ferguson and Kristin Bacchiocchi-Stewart.