Musician Spotlight by Lauren Fischer
Martha Long
PRINCIPAL FLUTE
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra Principal Flute Martha Long often encounters the same question many musicians receive:“ Do you come from a musical family?” For Long, the answer is“ no,” but her family does share a different passion: learning new languages.
Long’ s father was a French major in college. Her mother is a retired Latin professor, who also reads ancient Greek and speaks Italian, French, German, Spanish, and Portuguese. Long began her language-learning journey in high school with Spanish, and has since spent time learning German, French, and Portuguese.
Long’ s language education now comes from online classes, and, more recently, Duolingo. She currently maintains an impressive 900-day streak on the popular language-learning app, which equates to doing a lesson every day for about two-and-a-half years.
Duolingo proved especially useful to Long this past summer, when she accepted a gig with the São Paulo State Symphony Orchestra in Brazil. She had about three weeks to prepare for her travels, and immediately switched from learning French to Portuguese in the app. Once she arrived, she discovered that the rehearsals were all conducted in Spanish.
“ It was really cool for me to have that overlap of playing the flute and using language at exactly the same time; that’ s not really something I’ ve experienced in my life up until this point,” Long said.“ To get to use my brain for both felt like a really amazing, full-circle moment.”
Though she does not often experience both of her passions together, Long has found many similarities between mastering languages and music.
Mitro Hood
Martha Long is sponsored in the 2025 – 26 season by Mary Catherine Bunting.
“ I think having a good ear for music and having a good ear for languages go hand in hand,” Long said.“ Even though no one else in my family is a musician, everybody speaks multiple languages, and I think that’ s where me being a musician ties in. Music is just another language.”
NOV-DEC 2025 | OVERTURE | 5