Tara Helen O’Connor, Artistic Director

Tara Helen O’Connor, who Art Mag has said “so embodies perfection on the flute that you’ll forget she is human,” is an Avery Fisher Career Grant recipient, a two-time Grammy Award nominee, and, as a member of the New Millennium Ensemble, a recipient of the Walter W. Naumburg Chamber Music Award. A Wm. S. Haynes artist, she was the first flutist and wind player selected to participate in the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s Bowers Program and is currently a season artist of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, a member of the Windscape woodwind quintet and the Bach Aria Group.

O’Connor joined the prestigious faculty at the Yale School of Music in 2023 where she is professor of flute and coordinator of winds and brass. She is the Artistic Director of the Music from Angel Fire Festival and of Essex Winter Series in Connecticut. The latter she joined as its newest Artistic Director for the 2026 season following Mihae Lee’s retirement from the position she had held for 15 years.

A champion of contemporary music, Tara has premiered hundreds of works and has appeared on numerous recordings and film and television soundtracks including Barbie, Respect, The Joker, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Only Murders in the Building and Schmigadoon! to name only a few.

A charismatic performer noted for her artistic depth, brilliant technique and colorful tone spanning every musical era, O’Connor has collaborated with such distinguished artists as vocalists Jennifer Johnson Cano, Susanna Phillips and Dawn Upshaw, violinist Jaime Laredo, clarinetist David Shifrin, guitarist Eliot Fisk, and pianists Jeremy Denk, Peter Serkin, and Stephen Prutsman, and with such revered ensembles as the Emerson, Orion, and St. Lawrence string quartets.

Among the festivals at which Tara regularly appears include the Bravo! Vail festival, Chamber Music Northwest, Music@Menlo, Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, Chamber Music Festival of the Bluegrass, Spoleto Festival USA, the Banff Centre, Rockport Music, Bay Chamber Concerts, Manchester Music Festival, the Great Mountains Music Festival, Chesapeake Chamber Music Festival and Music From Angel Fire. 

O’Connor has appeared on A&E’s Breakfast with the Arts and PBS’s Live from Lincoln Center. She has recorded for Deutsche Grammophon, EMI Classics, Koch International, CMS Studio Recordings with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and Bridge Records. She also serves on the faculty at Bard College Conservatory of Music, and the Contemporary Performance Program at Manhattan School of Music. Tara holds a DMA from Stony Brook University. She lives with her husband, violinist Daniel Phillips, and their two miniature dachshunds, Chloé and Ava, on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.