Album Notes

"There can be few better ways for a maker to demonstrate the capabilities of a flute than to play it as well as Leonard Lopatin. The flute in question is the square-holed instrument for which he has become famous. Leonard Lopatin was a member of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra while in his early twenties, right out of the Juilliard School, so there can be no doubt about his musical abilities. On this disc he plays the solo sonatas of J.S. and C.P.E. Bach, a handful of Telemann fantasias and the Variations on Les Folies d'Espagne by Marin Marais, which he plays with virtuosity and with a great sense of fun. This is a most enjoyable disc." --Pan, the flute magazine (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.