Thomaz Tavares leads a vibrant international career as a soloist, chamber musician, and orchestral performer. He is Co-Founder and Executive Director of Ensemble IMAGO, a multidisciplinary chamber ensemble in artistic residence at the Fondation des États-Unis, and has been flutist of the Orchestre de Chambre Nouvelle Europe since 2019, performing regularly with Orchestre Hélios and the Paris Open Chamber Orchestra. He serves on the faculty of California State University Fullerton as Interim Lecturer, and is a recipient of the Harriet Hale Woolley Fellowship and the Diplôme de Concertiste.

 

As a passionate educator, Tavares previously served as flute professor in France at the Conservatoire de Provins and interim professor at the Conservatoire Jean-Baptiste Lully. He is co-founder of the summer masterclass academy Flûte Rêverie and has given recitals and masterclasses at more than 20 universities across France, the United States, and Brazil, including the San Francisco Conservatory, Cal State Long Beach + Fresno , San Jose State, Baylor University, and Texas Christian University, among others. He also served as guest adjunct professor at Texas A&M University-Commerce (fall 2024) before continuing on to his current appointment at California State University, Fullerton.

 

For three consecutive years, Tavares was invited as guest artist to the Festival de Fontainebleau, where he performed concerts, created musical guided tours of the château, and appeared in an educational web series detailing its musical history. He has also performed at festivals including the Oyster Bay Music Festival, Festival d'Auvers-sur-Oise, Journées de Ravel, Harmonies du Perche, Mélodieuse in Luberon, Dartington Summer Festival, Musicales de Mortagne et Perche, and Talis Sarajevo, and in venues such as Salle Gaveau, Salle Cortot, DiMenna Center, and Château de Fontainebleau.

 

As part of his Harriet Hale Woolley Fellowship, Tavares conducted performance research on the musical repertoire of the French Belle Époque and the flute works of composer Yuko Uebayashi, under whose mentorship he worked. This collaboration led to multiple invitations from the composer herself to perform and record her music in the south of France.

 

Recent highlights include a Vivaldi concerto tour in France, the release of his first Mozart EP with pianist Ruta Kuzmickas, a recital at New York's DiMenna Center, performances as guest artist for the Los Angeles Flute Association and Louisiana Flute Society festivals, recitals at Petit Palais in Paris and Galeries Lafayette in Annecy, and U.S. masterclass tours across the Midwest, Texas, Louisiana, Colorado, and California.

 

Tavares holds a Bachelor's degree from the Jacobs School of Music, where he received the Premier Young Artist Scholarship. He moved to Paris for graduate studies under renowned soloist Jean Ferrandis at the École Normale de Musique de Paris, where he obtained his Diplôme Supérieur d'Exécution with unanimous distinction from the jury and, in 2020, his terminal degree, the Diplôme Supérieur de Concertiste.

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"Some of my favorite work happens outside the concert hall," he says. Tavares has curated museum programs, collaborated with fashion designer Eddie Corps on projects that bring music and visual craft into the same room, and commissions new work from composer friends whenever he can. He writes regularly about music, and at the center of it all is a simple conviction: great music comes from a grassroots approach, made with great friends, with the salon as chamber music's truest home.

 

Tavares performs on a Straubinger 14k flute and a Faulisi headjoint.