Jessica Ringston is a flutist based in New York City, representing Miyazawa Flutes as an Emerging Artist and is the co-founder of Astra Collective. A dynamic soloist and chamber musician, she has been a featured performer in some of New York’s finest venues, including Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, National Sawdust, and The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Ringston’s compelling performances have been heard in the United States, France, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. As a soloist, Ringston has performed in Frank Martin’s Ballade for Flute and Orchestra with the Purchase Symphony Orchestra and Pierre Boulez’s Memoriale with the Mannes American Composers Ensemble led by David Fulmer. As a featured performer and orchestral musician, Ringston has collaborated with world-renowned ensembles including the Martha Graham Dance Company and Grammy-nominated Sandbox Percussion.
Ringston has participated in fellowships at the soundSCAPE Festival, British Isles Music Festival, Zodiac Music Festival, and Imani Winds Chamber Music Festival. She is a three-time winner of the Molnar-Harris Chamber Music Competition and winner of the 2023 Purchase Concerto Competition. She was named an Undergraduate Scholar and earned a grant from the prestigious Presser Foundation.
As a chamber musician, Ringston has been a featured performer in the Necessary Noise Festival, NYSoundCircuit, The Village Trip, and the RiverArts Music Festival. Ringston is a co-founder of the Astra Collective, a New York City based flute, violin, viola, and double bass quartet that is sought out for their innovative and engaging programming. The ensemble is actively commissioning new works that feature the unique and infrequently heard instrumentation. The Astra Collective has given several performances at The Frick Collection, and a performance of two world premieres this past January at New York City’s iconic Mercury Lounge. An advocate for new music, Ringston has performed in world premieres for solo flute, chamber ensembles, and orchestra in New York and Europe. She performed in the world premiere of Cyan Lyricism by Tyson Gholston-Davis and the New York premiere of Hide and Seek by Allison Loggins-Hull at the New York Flute Club’s Massed Flutes Concert.
Ringston’s passion for orchestral playing has led to recent performances with the Martha Graham Dance Company for their centennial celebration at New York City Center in the New York premiere of En Masse by Leonard Bernstein and Christopher Rountree. Additionally, Ringston is a resident artist with the Hunter Symphony Orchestra. This summer, she will perform in the Esker Festival Orchestra during their tour of Ireland.
In addition to her experience as a performer, Ringston is on the faculty at Tarrytown Music Hall and Nassau-Suffolk Academy of Music ,and serves on the Board of Directors for the New York Flute Club. Ringston presented her research on flute repertoire at the American Musicological Society-Mid Atlantic Chapter of the Society for Ethnomusicology joint conference at New York University.
Ringston holds a Bachelor of Music from Purchase Conservatory of Music and a Master of Music from the Mannes School of Music. Her principal teachers include Tara Helen O’Connor and Judith Mendenhall.
