Leone Buyse was born on February 7, 1947 in Oneida, New York, the daughter of Leonard and Ione Hinman Buyse. Her mother, a pianist who earned a master’s degree in theory from the
Eastman School of Music, was her first piano teacher and both parents supported her early interest in music. While growing up in Ithaca, New York, she attended many concerts at
Cornell University and heard renowned musicians of that time such as flutists
Julius Baker and
Albert Tipton, pianist
Gina Bachauer, violinist
Nathan Milstein, tenor
Jussi Björling, guitarist
Andres Segovia, and the famed French pedagogue
Nadia Boulanger. This musical upbringing and exposure to world class musicians from an early age contributed greatly to her musical development. Buyse’s formal music training began at a very young age with piano lessons and then expanded to include flute lessons at age nine. When she was 12 she began studying with David Berman, Professor of Flute at
Ithaca College (1954-1989), who was an extremely important foundational influence throughout her junior and senior high school years. At his suggestion Buyse applied to study with
Joseph Mariano at the
Eastman School of Music, from which she graduated with distinction and a Performer’s Certificate in 1968. Awarded a
Fulbright grant to study in France, Buyse attended the
Paris Conservatory, where she first had lessons with
Gaston Crunelle and the following year with
Jean-Pierre Rampal, whose summer master classes she attended for three summers in Nice at l’Académie Internationale d’Été. During this time she studied privately with
Michel Debost, at that time solo flutist of l’Orchestre de Paris, and also attended
Marcel Moyse’s summer master class in Boswil, Switzerland. She attributes her style as a flutist and musician to the mentorship of those iconic French artist/teachers. After returning to the United States, Buyse received a Master of Music degree in Flute Performance from
Emporia State University (then
Kansas State Teacher's College), while teaching undergraduate flute students and touring with the woodwind faculty in the Mid-America Woodwind Quintet. Her master's monograph,
The French Rococo Style Exemplified in Selected Chamber Works of Joseph Bodin Boismortier (1689-1755), was published in
The Emporia State Research Studies in 1979. In 1992, she received the Distinguished Alumna Award from Emporia State University. She credits this position as having given her an opportunity to grow as an orchestral player, preparing her for subsequent positions in the
San Francisco Symphony and later, the
Boston Symphony. In 1983, Buyse was invited by
Seiji Ozawa to join the
Boston Symphony as assistant principal of the Symphony and principal of the
Boston Pops under
John Williams. During her decade with the BSO and Boston Pops, she appeared numerous times as a soloist with those orchestras and performed with the Boston Symphony Chamber Players. Throughout her Boston years she was a member of Boston Musica Viva, performed with the Muir String Quartet, and collaborated with numerous artists, recording with her BSO colleague
Fenwick Smith and pianist
Martin Amlin. In addition she taught at the
New England Conservatory,
Boston University, and
Boston Conservatory. While playing the BSO’s summer season at Tanglewood she taught at Boston University’s
Tanglewood Institute and appeared in chamber concerts with international soloist
Yo-Yo Ma and with the
Juilliard String Quartet. A devoted advocate of chamber music, she and clarinetist Michael Webster formed the Webster Trio in 1988, playing and recording over the next 30 years with pianists
Martin Amlin, Katherine Collier, and the late Robert Moeling. Through commissions and Webster’s published arrangements of four-hand piano works and operatic music they greatly expanded the repertoire for flute, clarinet, and piano. They promoted this repertoire while performing and teaching throughout
North America and in
New Zealand,
Australia,
Europe, and also Japan, as the Webster Trio Japan with pianist Chizuko Sawa. In 1993 Buyse decided to pursue a more active career as soloist and teacher, accepting a professorship at The
University of Michigan. After four years she moved to Houston to become Professor of Flute at
Rice University. Her summer festival engagements have included two decades at the Sarasota Music Festival and appearances at Aspen, Norfolk, Orcas Island, Park City, Strings in the Mountains (Steamboat Springs), Sitka, Skaneateles, Music Academy (Santa Barbara), Texas Music Festival, and the Atlantic Music Festival. Since 2005 she has served as flute coach for
Orchestra of the Americas, which currently functions as OAcademy, an intensive online diploma program. Buyse has given recitals and masterclasses throughout the United States and in Mexico, Brazil, Panama, Chile, Italy, France, The Netherlands, Canada, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand. She has appeared as soloist with
l'Orchestre de la Suisse Romande (Geneva),
San Francisco Symphony,
Utah Symphony,
Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional (Mexico City), and the New Hampshire Music Festival, of which she was principal flute for over a decade. Buyse is recognized as one of the foremost flute pedagogues in America. Her students hold positions in such orchestras as the Boston Symphony, San Francisco Symphony, Houston Symphony, Detroit Symphony, Baltimore Symphony, and Toronto Symphony as well as teaching positions at such highly respected schools as Rice University, the
University of Colorado at Boulder, and
St. Olaf College. Also an accomplished pianist, she served as a collaborative pianist for Rampal’s summer classes in Nice, France. In 2010 Buyse was awarded the
National Flute Association's Lifetime Achievement Award for outstanding contributions to the global flute community. She retired from her position at
Rice University at the end of June 2023 and currently serves on the faculty of OAcademy, the Texas Music Festival, and the Atlantic Music Festival. == Personal life ==