Rate My Professor Paula Gudmundson

Dr. Paula Gudmundson is Associate Professor of Flute in the Department of Music at the University of Minnesota Duluth, within the College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences. She earned her Bachelor of Music from Lawrence University in 1999, Master of Music from the University of North Texas in 2001, and Doctor of Musical Arts in flute performance from the University of Minnesota Twin Cities in 2012 as a Berneking Fellow. Her principal teachers were Immanuel Davis, Terri Sundberg, Ernestine Whitman, and Adrianne Greenbaum. A practitioner of the Alexander Technique, she trained at the Sweet Briar Alexander Institute in Lynchburg, VA, and with Pedro Alcantara, Missy Vineyard, Lisa First, and Tully Hall, integrating this approach into her innovative teaching methods. Gudmundson has performed in masterclasses for renowned flutists including Jeanne Baxtresser, Tadeu Coelho, Carol Wincenc, Keith Underwood, Jeffery Kahner, Jim Walker, and Baroque specialist Barthold Kuijken.

Her research specializations include collaboration, community engagement, and amplifying absent or underrepresented narratives in the arts, with particular focus on women composers, Black composers, and Latin American music. An active performer, Paula Gudmundson has appeared at regional and national conferences of the College Music Society, National Flute Association conventions, as a Minnesota Public Radio Class Notes Artist, at the International Flute Festival of Costa Rica, and La Côte Flûte Festival. She has released key recordings: La Flauta of Buenos Aires (2014), Breaking Waves (2019), and Melodies of the Forest (2022), and has been featured on Minnesota Public Radio’s Regional Spotlight. Among her major honors is the 2022-2023 McKnight Fellowship for Performing Musicians, a $25,000 award supported by the McKnight Foundation and administered by the MacPhail Center for Music. She is a member of the College Music Society, American Composers Forum, Upper Midwest Flute Association, and National Flute Association, contributing through performances, commissions, and educational initiatives to her impact in the field.