Heather Beaty | Flute
Heather Beaty is a multi-faceted performing arts professional based in Vancouver, BC. Her musical journey began at age five in the Suzuki Flute studio at the Vancouver Academy of Music, where she developed fluency in music through an immersive and supportive environment.
Heather holds Bachelor (2010) and Master of Music (2012) degrees from the University of British Columbia, where she studied with renowned flutists including Lorna McGhee, Brenda Fedoruk and Christie Reside. She furthered her training through international programs such as Domaine Forget, the National Youth Orchestra of Canada, the William Bennett Summer Music Course in London, the Mozarteum Summer Academy in Salzburg and masterclasses in Vienna. She performed for acclaimed artists including William Bennett, Denis Bouriakov, Peter-Lukas Graf and Kersten McCall.
Career highlights include touring Canada with the National Youth Orchestra (2013), performing Die Zauberflöte with the North Czech Philharmonic at Prague’s historic Estates Theatre (2010), and volunteering as a MusAid Teaching Fellow with the National Youth Orchestra of Belize.
Heather enjoys a vibrant freelance career, performing with the Prince George, Kamloops, Okanagan, and Vancouver Island symphonies, Aventa Ensemble and the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra. She is principal flute with both the Kamloops and Okanagan Symphony Orchestras. She has also performed with Duo Trovador for the Health Arts Society in hospitals and care centres.
From 2011 to 2020, Heather served as head of the Suzuki Flute Department and theory instructor at the Vancouver Academy of Music. She is passionate about music education and inspired by the curiosity of young learners.
In 2012, Heather founded Music on the Mind, a UBC-based classical music collective that brought performances to unconventional campus venues. She expanded this vision through residencies at the Banff Centre and earned an Advanced Certificate in Arts and Entertainment Management from Capilano University in 2017.
In 2020, Heather co-founded the non-profit Seagrass Music Society with Molly MacKinnon, dedicated to modernizing classical music presentation and amplifying underrepresented voices. Their debut series, Concerts on Tap, combined classical music with craft beer in Vancouver breweries.
Since 2021, Heather has embraced motherhood, raising two daughters in East Vancouver while continuing freelance work. She remains committed to presenting meaningful, story-driven concerts that connect classical music with contemporary audiences.
