Berlin-based American flutist and pianist Gratia Stryker-Haertel, who began studying piano at five and flute at nine, gave her debut early on with the Young Concert Artists and the Rocky Mountain School of the Arts under the direction of Tom Wilson (The Magic Flute, Vivaldi Concerto RV 516). She went on to make appearances at venues including the Trinity Cathedral Cleveland (Brandenburg Concertos Nos. 2 & 4), The Kennedy Center/Pikes Peak Center (Imagination Celebration), City Hall Fujiyoshida in Japan (Peter and the Wolf), Winchester College in England (Masterworks Festival), and the Konzerthaus Berlin (Jugend musiziert).

Stryker-Haertel’s musical interests are far reaching, from new music (giving world premieres of works by Adam Schoenberg and Brandon Pettit, direct work with composers David Schober, Robert Dick) and historically informed performance practice (studies on baroque flute with Kathie Lynn, Michael Lynn, Lisa Crawford, Raymond Erickson) to Indian tonality (studies with sitarist Hasu Patel, Roderic Knight) and West African polyrhythms (work with Bailo Bah, Nathan Berg, Moussa Coulibaly). Stryker-Haertel has worked with a broad range of artists including Mitsuko Morikawa, Renate Rohlfing, Michele Gurdal, Yuri Mizobuchi, Sylvia De Barros Klein, Kristen Leich, Martha Cargo, Jaime McGill, Adam Forman, Ronan Moris, Lucas Ebert, Anna Steinhoff, Zoe Weiss, Zoe Ley, Erin Wang, Yeolim Nam, Amie Weiss and Justin Riberio. Chosen as substitute for the New World Symphony, Stryker-Haertel has also performed in ensembles under the direction of conductors including Tito Muñoz, Tom Wilson, Tim Weiss, Steven Smith, Paul Polivnick, Kevin Noe, Hugh Ferguson Floyd, Richard Westerfield, and German Augusto Gutierrez (in Carnegie Hall).

Stryker-Haertel studied performance at Texas Christian University, the Oberlin Conservatory of Music (BM) and Queens College CUNY (MM). She studied piano with John Owings, Robert Shannon, Sanford Margolis and Linda Skaret, flute with Robert Dick, Michel Debost, Kathleen Chastain, Chris Kantner, Karen Adrian, Alexander Murray, Paul Nagem and baroque flute with Kathie Lynn. She also benefitted from lessons, coaching and masterclasses with Paula Robison, Pam Adams, Jim Walker, Angela Jones-Reus, George Sakakeeny, Stephen Arons, Michael Patilla, Charles Neidich, Michael Lipsey, David Jolley Steve Perry, Alvin Chow and Jose Feghali. Paula Robison, who once remarked to Stryker, “We need your flute-voice!” has also been a particularly great mentor figure within her life and career.

Stryker-Haertel maintains a private studio in Berlin, Germany. She has also taught privately and given masterclasses and classroom workshops in New York City, Oberlin College, Kuyper College and various other cities and institutions across the U.S. She is also an award-winning German-to-English translator in the cultural sector for publishers such as the Goethe Institute, Random House, Bärenreiter, Ricordi, Sächsische Staatsoper Dresden, Staatsoper Berlin, Südwestrundfunk, Klassik Stiftung Weimar, RheinVokal, Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung and Schloss Elmau.