CLAUDIA ANDERSON is known for her originality and brilliance as a solo and chamber music performer across the U.S. She is a founding member of the innovative flute duo ZAWA! (with Jill Felber), the summer flute intensive Passion Flute: Foundations for Creative Performing, and is principal flute with the Waterloo Cedar Falls (IA) Symphony.
Currently flute faculty and Wind Area Head of Rocky Ridge’s College Intensive program, earlier in her tenure at RR she was Program Director for the Junior Program and had a major part in reshaping the faculty and program content during her five years in that position. She has worked closely with SoYoung in these areas at the College Intensive level since joining that faculty. She has taught at the Universities of Iowa and Northern Iowa, Ithaca College and the University of California at Santa Barbara. In May 2025 she retired from over 30 years on the music faculty at Grinnell College.
Claudia’s recent solo project, Glass Ceilings, commissioned several high-profile women composers and flutists to write pieces for flute(s) solo and electronic media, with its originating theme of gender inequality expanded to embrace the effects of Covid-19 and racial tensions of 2020. Anderson’s own work Glass Ceilings won the NFA’s Newly Published Music Competition in 2023. She has recorded for Centaur Records, CRI, Zawa!music, and cdbaby. Claudia’s duo ZAWA! is the longest-standing professional flute duo of our time. From their first commission by Jennifer Higdon onwards, they expanded the literature, power, and expressive range of two flutes together over more than two decades. running the edgE by Jennifer Higdon (commissioned in 1996) laid the foundation for ZAWA!’s commitment to expand this repertoire and to reflect a wealth of contemporary styles. Jennifer’s original dedication in the score of running the edgE, “to Jill and Claudia, always running the edge,” proved prophetic over the next 25 years. ZAWA!’s commissions, arrangements, and programs with repertoire ever pushing boundaries have led to ZAWA! Reimagined in 2025, a new program of works for two flutes and electronic soundtracks. It includes enticing scores from composers both known and emerging, and electronic versions of pieces from earlier repertoire. Follow their latest touring news at zawaflutes2.com