Album Notes

Featured on "Squarely in the Holiday Spirit!" are classically beautiful solo renditions of traditional and ancient songs and carols for the Yuletide Season, performed on concert and alto SquareONE flutes. The selections include music he performed at the Biltmore Estate during its 2007 holiday season. The cd was honored as an "Editor's Pick for Perfect Stocking-Stuffers" in the December 2008 issue of Pan, the journal of the British Flute Society.

Leonard Eli Lopatin, respected flutist, flutemaker and innovative designer of the Lopatin Scale and the SquareONE family of flutes, earned his Bachelor of Music degree from Juilliard in 1976. Shortly before graduation, Lopatin was appointed to the position of third flute and piccolo in the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, which position he held for three full seasons. Because of his growing interest in flute making, he left the opera in 1979 to move to Boston, MA to work for Brannen Brothers, Flutemakers. He established himself as a fully independent flute maker in 1994. As a freelance flutist in the Boston area, he performed with the Boston Symphony and Pops Orchestras, the Opera Company of Boston, the Harvard Chamber Orchestra, and the Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra, as well as in solo and chamber settings. After moving to Asheville, North Carolina in 2002, he has performed with the Asheville Lyric Opera, the Asheville Choral Society, the Knoxville Symphony, and the Spartanburg Symphony, among others, and is currently second flute with the Asheville Symphony.