Dutch flutist Mirna Ackers enjoys versatility, combining her passion for music, her love of arranging, and her background in musicology in her performances. She is known for her expressive playing and storytelling ability as a musician. As the only Dutch participant in years, she reached the semi-finals of the prestigious Kobe International Flute Competition in 2025, one of the world’s leading competitions for flutists. Her experiences were featured in the Cultuurdagboek (a cultural diary) of the leading Dutch newspaper NRC. Since the 2024/2025 season, she has been a member of the North Netherlands Symphony Orchestra (Noord Nederlands Orkest). She also performs regularly with other leading Dutch orchestras, including the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, the Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Residentie Orkest. In the 2019/2020 season, she was an academist with the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra | Netherlands Chamber Orchestra.
In addition to her orchestral work, Mirna maintains a long-standing collaboration with pianist Vital Stahievitch and is co-organizer of Flutopia, which creates projects and events for amateur flutists. On the occasion of Flutopia’s 10th anniversary, she and colleague Rogier de Pijper realized a remarkable performance of Bach’s St. Matthew Passion for flute orchestra, involving nearly 150 flutists. The project received nationwide attention and was extensively covered in the Dutch leading newspaper NRC.
Since 2020, Mirna has performed as a flutist and “spitsmuis” (shrew) in the family opera A Song for the Moon by Mathilde Wantenaar, at the Dutch National Opera and Opera Zuid: “What remains […] is the excellent instrumental ensemble, in which flute and piccolo player Mirna Ackers also proved herself to be a true comedian.” (Neil van der Linden/Basia con Fuoco). The production has been such a success that it has already had three reprises. She played principal flute in other family operas of the Dutch National Opera: Operetta Land by Steef de Jong (2022) and The Boy Who Grew Too Fast by Gian Carlo Menotti (2019).
Mirna studied flute with Marieke Schneemann and Kersten McCall (KCO) at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam, and took piccolo lessons with Vincent Cortvrint (KCO). She attended masterclasses with Emily Beynon, Sébastian Jacot, Jacques Zoon, and Felix Renggli. During her studies, Mirna played in the most important Dutch youth orchestras, including the JeugdOrkest Nederland under Jurjen Hempel and the Nationaal Jeugd Orkest under Antony Hermus, participating in projects and television appearances such as Aria, the Kerst Muziekgala, and the Kinderprinsengrachtconcert.