Doriot Anthony Dwyer

Doriot Anthony Dwyer, legendary flutist, has died at 98. Dwyer was the first woman to hold a principal chair in the Boston Symphony Orchestra, a position to which she was appointed by Charles Munch in 1952. I had long assumed she was the first woman to be an orchestra principal in the U.S.; I was very surprised to see that the Chicago Symphony Orchestra appointed Helen Kotas as principal horn in 1941. The next female principal in the BSO was not appointed until 1977, so...

Dwyer was a trailblazer, very tough about how she went about negotiating the job, and held the principal flute seat until she retired in 1990. I never studied with Dwyer and never met her, but I lived in the Boston area for five years and she was a towering figure among flutists. Rest in peace, Doriot Anthony Dwyer; you were a hero to so many young women who played the flute.

• Jeremy Eichler, Boston Globe, obit
• Andrea Shea, WBUR, obit
• Anthony Tommasini, NY Times, obit
• Staff, Washington Post, obit
• AP, Billboard, obit
• Kristen Elizabeth Kean, dissertation