Nina Assimakopoulos

Professor of Flute

WVU Professor of Flute Nina Assimakopoulos is one of the recipients of a FY26 Humanities Center collaboration grant. The grant will support her team’s multimedia documentary film project, “The New: Appalachian Resilience in the Land, River, and People of the New River Gorge.

Assimakopoulos’ artistic works connect people, places, and cultures through musical storytelling, offering immersive sound experiences that blend original compositions, field recordings, regional narratives, and handmade instruments crafted from natural Appalachian resources.

Her love of nature—rooted in childhood experiences exploring the woods and waters of Westchester County, New York, and Lake Winnipesaukee, New Hampshire—is part of the story that led to her fascination with the New River Gorge area of West Virginia.

Assimakopoulos has no memory of ever wanting to be a musician or performer; she was simply born to create and share through performance. Her first instrument was the fife, but she chose the flute as her primary instrument “because it was shiny!” From the very start, she loved performing for others—wanting to delight people and create energy and joy through music.

When she was just starting to play the flute, she was given a James Galway record by a family friend. Her parents had a stereo with speakers each “the size of refrigerators,” and she listened to that record over and over again. As she heard and felt the sound of Galway’s music, pressed up against the mammoth stereo speakers, she decided then and there that she too would be one of the world’s best flutists. And that she did.

Assimakopoulos made her mark early in her career as one of the world’s premier flutists—a journey that has spanned over 700 performances and the release of nine solo albums, several of which have earned international awards. She performed her solo debut at Carnegie Hall in 2000, of which New York Concert Review wrote, “Assimakopoulos guided this sonic world tour with genuine musicianship, excellent technique, and uncommon projection and richness of tone in the flute’s lowest register. In this performance, the only jury was the audience, and they showered Assimakopoulos with high marks in the form of hearty applause and a lengthy standing ovation.”

Assimakopoulos’s fascination with the rivers of West Virginia—widely regarded as the whitewater capital of the world—began about four years ago, when she embarked on a journey into whitewater paddling under the mentorship of renowned paddle maker and Whitewater Hall of Fame inductee Jim Snyder of Preston County. Her experiences learning from the river and its community were life-changing, inspiring a vision for connecting audiences to the environment through performances and multimedia works that celebrate the ecology, culture, and history of the region. 

As a token of appreciation for Jim’s mentorship, Assimakopoulos set out to make a Native American-style wooden flute from the same wood Jim used for crafting paddles. Though she had developed some woodworking skills as a child building projects with her father, creating a proper flute required additional guidance.

Assimakopoulos found that guidance through Professor James Akins, a Native American-style flute maker (Raven Bear Flutes) with Cherokee and Powhatan roots. Under Akins’ mentorship, her flute-making journey evolved far beyond the initial gift. She has now crafted over 30 flutes, including recent creations from driftwood gathered along the banks of the New River.

Crafting and performing on flutes made from regional woods—both foraged and repurposed—has given Assimakopoulos an extended voice as a flutist and multimedia sound artist. She feels that in crafting and playing these flutes, she is unleashing the voices of thousands of years of ecology, history, and people from the region.

Assimakopoulos, as writer, director, and producer of “The New,” draws from her personal experiences and her witnessing of Appalachian resilience and ecological regeneration—stories carried by the land, the river, and the driftwood-turned-flute. 

Her team—comprised of regional cinematographers, soundtrack artists, and Appalachian historians—helps bring these stories to life, weaving together visual storytelling, soundscapes, and historical insights to honor the voices, culture, and spirit of the region.

An internationally acclaimed flutist and interdisciplinary artist, Assimakopoulos is the recipient of numerous international grants and awards from prestigious organizations, including the Aaron Copland Fund, the Fulbright Commission, and the National Society of Arts and Letters. In 2024, she was honored with the WVU Benedum Distinguished Scholars Award.