International award-winning flautist Aleksandra Henszel made her Cayman Islands debut at the Spring Fantasy concert, as the Cayman National Choir and Orchestra opened their 2024 season on Friday, 22 March at the Harquail Theatre.
Born in Poland, Henszel studied at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. Two years later, she was awarded a master of performance with distinction degree from the Royal College of Music, London.
The acclaimed flautist has performed at many of Europe’s most famous concert halls, including recently with the RCM Chamber Orchestra at Buckingham Place at the invitation of King Charles III.
Henszel moved to the Cayman Islands seven months ago to join the instrumental teaching team at the Spark! School of Performing Arts.
“I’m over the moon,” Henszel told the Compass. “It’s such a great opportunity. I’m so happy to be able to do this here.”
Alongside the choir and orchestra, which was conducted by Alina Makhina, Henszel thrilled audience members with an evening of classical masterpieces and modern favourites, performing the Chaminade Concertino for flute, Haydn’s triumphant ‘Gloria’, Edvard Grieg’s evocative ‘Peer Gynt’- Morning Mood’, and Ennio Morricone’s popular ‘Nella Fantasia’. Henzel gave the audience a surprise treat with ‘Ave Maria’ by Guilio Caccini that was performed with the choir.
“Being that I am classically trained, I was so happy to find that there is an orchestra to have me and play with me. The fact that I’m able to teach, which I really enjoy, and perform is fantastic.”
Henszel has lived in different places around the world, but what is “special about Cayman is small but the community is very open, friendly and people support each other which is great.”
From the very beginning at Spark, she said she was “completely supported, and in terms of teaching, I’ve always really enjoyed sharing my passion and knowledge about music with others, and what I’ve found so far is I’ve had great students that are willing to learn”.
She added, “We have kids from all over the island, and they’ve all been great, and I’ve been enjoying myself so far.”
Henszel said she’s always known she wanted to be a musician and felt “that was the way for me”.
“Maybe from the age of 5 or 6, I felt music would always be a part of me. Since that age, I’ve loved to sing, and once I enrolled in the music school at 7, I started playing the recorder and then the flute… always absolutely loved it, and never really considered doing anything else.”
Once in university, Henszel said sharing her passion with others, was where teaching came into her life.
“I started with workshops, and then going around different schools and places to give masterclasses and show what music can do [for] young people… it was such a great experience. I thought it would be so wonderful in my life if I could… play music, teach it and share my love for it.”
She said even though it’s such a small island, “there’s so much happening and something for everyone”.
“My music making is the traditional European music and I know there’s a wonderful traditional Cayman scene. I would love to, at some point, see how we can combine the European traditional folk music with the Caymanian folk tradition.”
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