Charles Brink, traverso

Charles Brink, the most recent member of the Four Nations Ensemble, was born in 1967, and began his flute studies with Jacob Berg in his hometown of St. Louis, Missouri. After completing his Bachelor’s degree at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music he began his graduate studies with Fenwick Smith at the New England Conservatory. In 1993 he received a Master’s of Music degree in modern flute performance and that summer was a Fellow at the Tanglewood Festival.

In 1995 while studying at the Mannes College of Music, he was awarded a Fulbright grant to study with Wilbert Hazelzet and Rien de Reede at the Royal Conservatory of Music in The Hague, Netherlands. There, Mr. Brink earned certificates for study on both modern and baroque flute in 1997. For a year after his studies Charles Brink served as solo flutist in the period instrument orchestra "Chursächsische Philharmonie" in Germany. He has performed with several other period-instrument ensembles, including his own Bouts Ensemble, the Hannoverische Hofkapelle, and the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra with whom he has toured and recorded. In 2001 he won an Honorable Mention in the Erwin Bodky Competition for early music.