• World renowned flutist Sergio Pallottelli at Marquette this week.
• Will teach, perform with students.
• Long time friend of Marquette Music Director, Erik Janners.
• Janners hopes to host world-class musician every year.

Not to toot its own horn, but the Marquette Symphonic Band has quite the impressive guest this week.

Internationally acclaimed flutist Sergio Pallottelli will be teaching and performing with Marquette's musicians throughout the week. Pallottelli gave a solo performance Tuesday and will perform with the symphonic band at this Sunday's winter concert. He will also be providing personal instruction for Marquette flutists through Saturday.

Pallottelli has performed as a soloist and chamber musician all over the world, including in South America, Europe and Australia. He has collaborated with several acclaimed composers, such as Mario Davidovsky and Milton Babbitt. Pallottelli is also an accomplished instructor, teaching the flute internationally as an adjunct professor at the University of Bridgeport in Connecticut.

Pallottelli said the arts of teaching and performing go hand in hand.

"You really can't have one without the other," he said. "I have a great interest in molding talent, in seeing something others don't see. On the other hand, I learn every day as a teacher, and I use what I learn from my students as a performer."

Raised in the small town of Siene, Italy, Pallottelli said music was a part of his life from a very early age.

"My parents were constantly playing Mozart and jazz, so I had an appreciation for that music at a very early age," he said.

Pallottelli was drawn to the flute after seeing a concert with his mother when he was nine years old and has been playing ever since. He said the flute found him, rather than the other way around.

"The instrument spoke to me," Pallottelli said. "It wasn't like someone just handed me the thing in band. There was never a moment when playing the flute felt like work."

Pallottelli is a long-time friend of Erik Janners, first-year director of music at Marquette. He said the two met while studying music at the University of Utah and have kept in touch ever since. Janners said Pallottelli's visit is a testament to his generosity.

"Sergio could make more in a two to three day engagement than we're paying him all week," Janners said.

Pallotetlli contests that the visit is well worth his time.

"Teaching is priceless," he said. "If I'm able to touch one student, you can't put a price on that."

Janners has been actively building the music program at Marquette since his arrival, helping to establish a music minor and coordinating the addition of 20 pianos on campus next year. He said he hopes to bring in a musician to teach and perform every year.

"Once I announced to the band we had a world-renowned flutist coming, all the trumpet players said they'd like to have somebody too," he said.

Anna Keely, a senior in the College of Engineering, is in her third year as flute section leader for the Marquette Symphonic Band. She said the flutists have greatly benefited from Pallottelli's visit.

"Working with a master flute player and getting personal critiques has been incredibly beneficial as musicians," Keely said.