Michelle Stanley brings a wealth of diversity and experience to her flute playing. Throughout her performance career she has achieved accomplishment as a soloist, and in orchestral and chamber settings.

Performances include solo appearances with the Estes Park Music Festival, the Rocky Mountain Wind Band and featured chamber performances at the Fringe Festival (Berkeley Early Music Festival), the Back Door Chamber Festival, the National Flute Association Convention in Atlanta, the Boulder Bach Festival, The College Music Society, The World Association of Symphonic Bands and Ensembles in Hamamatsu, Japan, and the Colorado State Music Teacher’s Association convention (featuring the premiere by the compositional winner of the new music competition).

Soloist appearances include performances with the Loveland Chamber Orchestra and a featured performance on a program of the music of George Crumb performing ‘An Idyll for the Misbegotten’ and ‘Vox Balaenae’ for his 75th birthday celebration with the composer in attendance. Her debut recording will be released October 1st, 2007 by Centaur Records. The recording includes many of the newly commissioned and premiered chamber repertoire that Sonora and Dr. Stanley have steadily built.

Equally at home in the orchestral setting, Michelle is 2nd flute and piccolo player with the Colorado Ballet orchestra and can be seen regularly with the Colorado Symphony Orchestra as an extra and substitute. She has performed with the Colorado Music Festival Orchestra, Boulder Philharmonic, Ft. Collins Opera Orchestra, Aspen Choral Society Orchestra, the Mahlerfest Orchestra, the Ft. Collins Symphony, Longmont Symphony, Mercury Ensemble and the Centennial Philharmonic.

As co-founder of the Sonora Chamber Ensemble, Michelle has presented chamber concerts with Sonora focusing on connecting with audience through standard repertoire while developing and promoting new music through commissions and premieres. Sonora has commissioned new works from composers throughout the United States such as Javier Arau’s ‘Montoya’s Time in Orissa’, Christopher Caliendo’s ‘Sincerita’, Cherise Leiter’s ‘A Day in the Life’, and Marcia Marchesi’s ‘Reflection’ and ‘Sounds of Spring’. The newest commission is a co-commission with the Isreali chamber group, Ensemble Meitar for a new work by Los Angeles composer Russell Steinberg. In addition to new music, Sonora continues to present all types of repertoire in their regular concert series.

Michelle is currently on the full-time  faculty at Colorado State University where she teaches flute and music appreciation.

She was the president of the Colorado Flute Association for 2 years and spent 6 years as a board member. While president she ran the annual Colorado Flute Fair bringing flutists from across Colorado to Metro State to hear artists such as Marco Granados and Stephen Preston. She is currently the coordinator for the flute seminar of Marco Granados (Sunflute), which is held in Colorado every summer.

Michelle attended the University of New Hampshire as a student of Peggy Vagts where she received a BA in Music. She spent a year in London studying at Trinity College of Music where she was a student of Anne Cherry. In London she presented a solo recital as well as participated in numerous chamber music concerts. Following her studies on the east coast she attended the University of Colorado at Boulder where she earned a Masters degree in flute performance and a Doctorate of Musical Arts in flute performance and pedagogy. Her teachers at CU-Boulder included Kathy Cook, Susan Glaser, Karen Yanovitz and Alexa Still. She is a past participant of Wildacres flute seminar where she studied with William Bennett and Stephen Preston. Michelle is has participated in masterclasses with Julius Baker, Leone Buyse, Peter Lloyd, and Carol Wincenc.