Vice President of Artistic Development - Wm. S. Haynes Co.

Steven P. Finley (Finley) is Vice President of Artistic Development at the Wm. S. Haynes Company in Boston, MA – a role that unites his lifelong passions as both a distinguished performer and one of the world’s most revered flute makers and technicians.

A graduate of the Peabody Institute of Music at Johns Hopkins University, Finley has enjoyed a rich performing career, appearing with the Boston Symphony, Boston Pops, Boston Academy of Music, and Pittsburgh Symphony, and serving as Assistant Principal Flutist of the Caracas Philharmonic in Venezuela. He has performed under such legendary conductors as Leonard Bernstein, Charles Dutoit, Seiji Ozawa, and Sergiu Commissiona, and studied with some of the flute’s most influential teachers including Britton Johnson, Bernard Z. Goldberg, Doriot Anthony Dwyer, and James Pappoutsakis, with additional coaching from Robert Willoughby, Leon Fleisher, and Leonard Shure.

Since 1979, he has also been a central creative force in the world of flute-making. His extraordinary technical skill, artistic vision, and profound understanding of sound and expression, in close collaboration with his esteemed colleagues, have helped to transform the Wm. S. Haynes Company’s instruments into works of art, celebrated worldwide. Famed for his ability to “voice” instruments so that they not only meet but transcend the expectations of the world’s greatest flutists, Finley has developed a reputation for finishing flutes that are inspiring, challenging, and revolutionary – instruments that speak with extraordinary depth, colour, imagination and a “welcoming, personal, resonance”.

Beloved by flutists, colleagues, and fellow flute makers across the globe, Finley has devoted his career to nurturing artistry both on and off the stage. He regularly presents lecture-recitals on flute design and history throughout Asia, Europe, and North America, sharing his unique perspective as both a performer and master craftsman. In recognition of his immense contribution to the art of flute making and his decades of innovation and mentorship, the National Flute Association will present him with its Lifetime Achievement Award in 2026.