Dieter Flury (born July 8, 1952) is a Swiss classical flutist who was the principal flute of the Vienna Philharmonic from 1981 to 2017.
Early life
Flury studied with Hans Meyer and André Jaunet at the Zurich University of Music, where he graduated in 1976.
He also completed a mathematics degree at the same time at
ETH Zurich.
Career
Flury joined the Vienna State Opera Orchestra in September 1977 and the Vienna Philharmonic in 1981 as the principal flute. He was succeeded by Silvia Careddu in 2017.
He has been a full-time professor at the University of Fine Arts in Graz, Austria since 1996.
Controversy
Flury has sparked controversy over comments that accepting women and/or people of color into the Vienna Philharmonic takes away from the
Classical music of the
orchestra and that musicians outside of Europe do not have the same standards. In 1996, he commented:
He also told Westdeutscher Rundfunk that accepting women would be "gambling with the emotional unity that this organism currently has".[Westdeutscher Rundfunk Radio 5, "Musikalische Misogynie", 13 February 1996, transcribed by Regina Himmelbauer; translation by William Osborne]
