21st century
Baroque
Classical
Romantic
20th century
21st century
Solo repertoire
Piccolo
Alto flute
Bass flute
Monroe Ervin
Adler, Samuel
Albert, Adrienne
Amlin, Martin
Arnauts, Dimitri
Bacri, Nicolas
Baksa, Robert
Balter, Marcos
Beal, Jeff
Bilotta, John
Borisova-Ollas, Victoria
Bullard, Janice Maille
Bunch, Kenji
Carter, Elliott
Chamberlain, Nicole
Chyrzynski, Marcel
Clarke, Ian
Coleman, Valerie
Connesson, Guillaume
Costa Roldán, Eduardo
Cueto, Daniel
Dalbavie, Marc-André
Daugherty, Michael
Dehnhard, Tilmann
Desenne, Paul
Dorff, Daniel
Egger, Fabian Johannes
Eggert, Kenneth
Firšt, Nenad
Furrer, Beat
Garrop, Stacy
Ghidoni, Armando
Gibb, Charles
Hailstork, Adolphus
Harberg, Amanda
Hersh, Howard
Hoover, Katherine
Igudesman, Aleksey
Ittzés, Gergely
Kernis, Aaron Jay
Khoury, Houstaf
Kukal, Ondřej
León, Tania
Lias, Stephen
Liebermann, Lowell
Lindberg, Christian
Linthicum-Blackhorse, William
Louke, Phyllis Avidan
Magalif, Eugene
Mitchell, Jonathan
Monroe, Ervin
Mower, Mike
Mucha, Geraldine
Mulleman, Tim
Ornstein, Maarten
Pann, Carter
Panufnik, Roxanna
Pärt, Arvo
Pattillo, Greg
Penman, Katrina
Petrič, Ivo
Price, William
Pritsker, Gene
Pucihar, Blaž
Ran, Shulamit
Rea, Stephanie
Rotaru, Doina
Rozman, Anže
Schocker, Gary
Schwantner, Joseph
Sciarrino, Salvatore
Seif, Sami
Serebrier, José
Skipworth, Lachlan
Sollberger, Harvey
Somma, Victor
Uébayashi, Yuko
Vasks, Pēteris
Widmann, Jörg
Witt, Carl
Woolf, Randall
Yi, Chen
A Night Soloquy for flute alone
A Night Soloquy for flute alone
Ervin Monroe: A Night Soloquy for flute alone was written in 2017 and published the same year by Little Piper.
The work was composed as a memorial tribute to Philip Dikeman (1963–2016), a prominent flutist, the Associate Principal Flute of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra (DSO), and professor at the Blair School of Music, who died in 2016.
Ervin Monroe, who served as the principal flutist of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra for 40 years (up to 2008), wrote the piece to his dear colleague shortly after Dikeman's passing.
The piece is a single-movement unaccompanied solo intended to be "beautifully somber," reflecting a contemplative mood that moves toward a quiet, peaceful resolution.
Though "retired" from the orchestra since 2008, Monroe remained highly active during these years. He continued to manage his publishing company, Little Piper, which he founded in the 1970s and which officially published A Night Soliloquy in 2017. He maintained his role as the head of Muramatsu America, the North American distributor for the prestigious Japanese flute maker.
In August 2017, Monroe received the highest honor in the American flute community: the National Flute Association (NFA) Lifetime Achievement Award.
Monroe Ervin
Ervin Monroe (1942) is an American flutist, composer, and entrepreneur. Born in Charleston, South Carolina, he studied at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, studying under the legendary Robert Willoughby. He later earned a Master’s degree from the Manhattan School of Music, where he was a student of William Kincaid, the "father of the American flute school," and Harold Bennett.
At the age of 25, he won the principal flute position in the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, which he held for 40 years, up to his retirement in 2008. He performed under world-renowned conductors like Antal Doráti and Neeme Järvi and appeared as a soloist on over 20 recordings.
In the 1970s, Monroe founded Little Piper, a publishing company dedicated to flute-specific repertoire and arrangements.
His compositional style is defined by his "performer-first" philosophy. He writes music that feels natural to play while maximizing the flute's specific acoustic strengths, focusing on the flute’s most resonant ranges.
His musical language is predominantly tonal and melodic. He favors a "singing" style reminiscent of the French Flute School (Taffanel, Gaubert), which he studied extensively.