Sherry Finzer

Life

Finzer was born in Syracuse, New York, on August 23, 1963 to middle class working parents. When she was 12, her father took a job offer that moved her family to Henrietta, a suburb of Rochester, New York, where she would attend Charles H. Roth High School, and major in music. After marrying in 1983, at the age of 20, the artist and her husband moved north to the border town of Greece. They have two children, one of which is jazz musician Nick Finzer. In 2005 the family moved west, currently residing in the Ahwatukee area of Phoenix.

Music career

As a classical performer, Finzer was a member of the Brockport Symphony Orchestra from 1986 to 1988, and of the Greece Symphony Orchestra from 2003 to 2004. Between 2000 and 2005, she provided musical accompaniment in a number of choirs, orchestras and ensembles, including the Silver Tones Flute Choir, NRG! Flute Duo, the Caprice flute trio, the Trillium Ensemble, Canatabile Flute Quartet, CAFE, the Arizona Flute Society Alle Breve choir, and is a performing member of the National Flute Association.

Finzer has released several solo albums, and multiple collections in supergroups. In 2006 she teamed up with acoustic and electric guitarist Ric Flauding to release her debut album Desert Journey, a collection of new age and world music instrumentals arranged for flute and guitar. The first of Finzer's Sanctuary albums followed in 2009, and in the same year she and harpist VeeRonna Ragone formed Dulce VAS, releasing a jazz fusion, Latin flair Christmas album of traditional holiday songs performed as mambos, sambas and rhumbas entitled Christmas Picante. In 2010, she released Masquerade and Radiant Sky, the latter being a second album with Flauding and a host of other musicians, including fellow flutist Tina Beaton, percussionist Freddie Colon, and guitarists Will Chapin, Pedro Perez and Evan Drummond.

In 2011, Finzer released the second installment in her Sanctuary trilogy, Sanctuary II: Earth. Earth is a relaxation/meditation album of six extended tracks, each performed utilizing the alto flute, and designed around expressionist themes of wood, water and air. Having found a unique voice and interest in the subgenre of "healing music", she collaborated with guitarist Darin Mahoney in 2013 for the release of Transformation an album the two artists composed to foster an emotional experience for those faced with life-threatening illnesses - most specifically cancer, of which Mahoney is a survivor. The album was engineered by John Herrera at Clamsville Studios and won One World Music UK's Album of the Year award in 2013. Finzer called on Herrera's production again the following year, for the release of Sanctuary III: Beyond the Dream, an album which received widespread acclaim and award nominations - most notably on the long running NPR show Echoes. The album's closing track "Song For Rex" garnered considerable attention as a piece composed for her grandson with Down Syndrome. Hundreds of children with DS submitted their photos for use in the song's video.

In 2015, Finzer collaborated with Native American Flutist Mark Holland on Flute Flight an album of ambient and atmospheric music performed on concert flutes (c flute, alto flute and bass flute), as well as featuring the sounds of Native American Flutes. Finzer intermittently performs as a duo with bassist Cass Anawaty as Majestica.

In addition to her frequent recorded output and performance schedule, Finzer's Heart Dance Records label continues to expand its roster, having grown from representing only six artists in its inception in 2006, to now overseeing the output of over 20 new age, acoustic and meditative music performers, including former Windham Hill artist Scott Cossu.

Sound

Sherry Finzer's sound is influenced by the artists she collaborates with, and by the instruments she uses. She incorporates a variety of flutes in her compositions, where wind instruments are mixed with Gregorian chants, ethereal sounds, natural and other ethnic arrangements to create her soundscapes. She mixes modern electronic modes and Eastern scales and melodies that evoke an air of mystery and intrigue. Critic RJ Lannan, of Zone Music Reporter, describes her compositions as “deeply haunting…calms and yet piques the senses,” and compared some of her more thematic works to “a rush of water in a desert gorge.” Lannan goes on to liken the often empyrean suggestions in her work as "comets and asteroids zooming through space...with the music becoming a springboard for...playful fantasies.” Echoes Radio show host, John Diliberto, intimates that her sound "explor[es] a deeper modality hovering between new age meditations and ambient chamber music."

Discography

Performances/Appearances

Awards & Nominations

Flute competitions: 1st Place

Associations