Flautist Ana de la Vega will close the Snow Concert Hall season with a concert named after her international best-selling album, My Paris, devoted to the city she loves best – after Canberra, reports HELEN MUSA.

Described by the Berlin Morning Post as “one of the most outstanding artists of our time”, flautist and artistic director of the Snow Concert Hall, Ana de la Vega, has been juggling her musical direction of the Snow facility – now nearing the end of its third annual season – with raising her new baby, Belle Daisy Storm Campbell.

Even so, she’ll find time to close the 2025 season with a concert named after her Amazon No. 1 international bestseller, My Paris, devoted to the city she loves best – after Canberra, that is, as I found during a quick coffee chat in Manuka.

De la Vega is always on fire. One of the world’s most sought-after flautists, she has performed as a soloist in such great halls as the Philharmonie Berlin, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Wigmore Hall London, and the Liszt Academy Budapest.

She loves telling how, at seven, she first heard Jean-Pierre Rampal’s recording of Mozart’s Flute Concerto No. 8 and became obsessed with studying in Paris.

“I had never even seen a flute, but I became totally obsessed with the idea of studying with Jean-Pierre,” she says. “I studied flute at school, went to Sydney University, then bought a one-way ticket to Paris.”

There she found Rampal had passed away, but she pleaded with his colleague Raymond Guiot to take her on.

“He said, ‘I’m too old, you’re crazy,’ but I begged and he agreed – for three months – and I worked towards the auditions and got in.”

Since then, it’s always been “my Paris”.

She says: “There is no instrument more connected to or relevant to a city as the flute is to Paris and Paris is to the flute. The great flute players of all time have either been French or studied in Paris, and the Conservatoire is the centre of flute playing.”

While she acknowledges the flute’s presence in German and Russian Romantic music, it’s France where it’s truly celebrated. Her My Paris concert is a smorgasbord of French favourites – Debussy, Ravel, Fauré, Massenet, Saint-Saëns, Satie, Poulenc and more.

The My Paris album, released in 2022, became a bestseller across Europe, though this will be her first time performing it in Australia, joined by the brilliant pianist Grace Kim.

De la Vega’s mind is also on the 2026 Snow Concert Hall program, which opens in March with Britain’s King’s Singers, followed by a May opera gala featuring Jane Ede and Helen Sherman. August brings the Sitkovetsky Piano Trio, and later the Dutch piano duo Lucas and Arthur Jussen, the Sydney Symphony Orchestra with a dance-themed program, and finally Piers Lane’s recital of Chopin’s Nocturnes.

She’s been on a steep learning curve since taking up the directorship in 2023.

“In getting artists to Australia, you’re quite restricted by who’s already coming and what dates are in their diary,” she says. “You also need an equal spread through the year, gender balance and variety of instruments.”

A surprise addition is opera – though not to her.

“I played principal flute in a Portuguese orchestra after graduating. That was the most fantastic training because there’s a hell of a lot of flute in opera and ballet music – more than in symphonic music.”

She has also worked with mezzo-soprano Helen Sherman in London and says: “Australian opera singers are something we should be very, very proud of. Around the world, we are renowned for that, and I want to be part of celebrating it.

“The most important thing to me is that as many people as possible in Canberra are inspired to come and hear classical music. I don’t want to ostracise anyone – I want our music to feel as accessible as possible. It’s been absolutely mind-blowing to get the best-of-the-best performances.”

Ana de la Vega, My Paris, Snow Concert Hall, November 15.