UMD Associate Professor of Flute and Music Department Head, Paula Gudmundson, has been awarded the McKnight Fellowship for Musicians. The award is supported by the McKnight Foundation and administered by the MacPhail Center for Music. This fellowship was founded on the belief that "Minnesota thrives when its artists thrive.”
Out of a pool of 82 applicants, Gudmundson was selected as one of four recipients to receive $25,000. “I am so honored to be selected for this award,” she says. “I was in complete shock when they called to tell me I had won, the tears kind of just flowed because really I performed pieces that were so important to me and this journey.”
Gudmundson centers her work around collaborations, community engagement, and giving voice to absent narratives in the arts. She pushes the field of art beyond the concert stage.
She has also performed at many music festivals and events while working as a professor at UMD. Her appearances include conferences of the College Music Society, National Flute Association conventions, the International Flute Festival of Costa Rica, and the La Côte Flûte Festival. In addition, she was selected as a Minnesota Public Radio Class Notes Artist. Her recordings include La Flauta of Buenos Aires (2012), Breaking Waves (2019) and Melodies of the Forest (2022).
Find out more about the MacPhail Center for Music and the McKnight Fellowship.