Biography

Dennette Derbisova McDermott  is retired Professor of Flute and Coordinator of Graduate Studies at Northwestern State University of Louisiana where taught for thirty two years.
She made her European debut in 1992 in the Czech Republic with the Czech premiere of Jindřich Feld's solo flute work, Introduzione, Toccato e Fuga.  The solo flute music of Feld was the topic of her dissertation and in 1999 she also recorded a CD of  solo Czech flute works of Feld and others.
Dr. McDermott has performed in the Czech Republic, Slovakia ,England, Canada, Honduras, Russia, Spain and throughout the United States, including numerous performances at National Flute Association Conventions, and also featured as a winner of the Conventions Performers Competition in 1994, 96, and 99.

Her orchestral playing was with the Shreveport and Longview Symphonies  and spanned from 1994 until 2015, often playing piccolo.

In 2008 she traveled to Moscow and recorded for www.classicalrecords.ru, a CD of "Trios for Flute, Bassoon and Piano,"  by Beethoven, Kuhlau and Donizetti,with Katerina Zaitseva and, Douglas Bakenhus.

In June, 2015 her interest in baroque flute led to the opportunity to participate in the Tafelmusik Baroque Summer Institute in 2015, 2017, an intensive training program on historical instruments, where she studied flute with Claire Guimond and Jed Wentz. In addition in 2016 and 2017 she participated  in the Twin Cities Baroque Music program, where she studied with Wilbert, Hazelzet.  In 2019 She was selected from an audition to participate with The American Bach Soloists Academy in San Francisco where she studied with Sandra Miller. She has also participated in the Seattle Baroque Flute course taught by Janet See and Kathy Stewart in 2019-2022.

Dennette has played baroque and Classical flutes with the Austin Baroque Orchestra, a period music ensemble that specializes in music of the renaissance, baroque and classical periods. In 2021 she performed with  the newly formed group, Ritornello Baroque Collective of San Diego, CA.

She has been published by The Flutist Quarterly, Pan and Flute Talk, with articles on Czech music. As an active researcher, she has compiled and edited the only edition of the Czech flute sonatas of Jiri Čart published by Little Piper, Trio Sonatas published by Alliance Publications, Inc. 2011. She has identified manuscripts of Jiri Čart in the Giedde Collection, of Copengahen, including one of his flute concertos and sonatas.  In 2016 after almost 20 years of researching, she published the first Thematic Catalog for the baroque Czech composer, Jiri Čart(Georg Czarth) A Thematic Catalog. In 2021 she was granted permission to revise the article of the composer for the  Grove Music Online. Soon to be released will be a Compact Disc recording of seven of his flute sonatas, played on period instruments, recorded with Leighann Daihl Ragusa, David Schrader and Douglas Bakenhus.

Her  modern flute studies have been with Ervin Monroe, Isreal Borochoff, Clement Barone, Judith Bentley, Renée Siebert, Mary Karen Clardy and Arnošt Bourek. She holds degrees from Michigan State University,B.M., The University of Michigan, M.M. and The University of North Texas, D.M.A.