Progressive Rock Violin, Flute & Horn Players — Musician Guide: Players, Bands & Key Albums

Progressive Rock Violin, Flute & Horn Players — an atmospheric illustration of an unbranded violin, a silver flute and a saxophone on a dark stage in green-gold light

MusiciansViolin, Flute & Horns

Progressive Rock Violin, Flute & Horn Players — Musician Guide: Players, Bands & Key Albums

The violinists, flautists and horn players of progressive rock: who they are, the bands they played in and the albums where to hear them.

  • InstrumentViolin, flute, sax, trumpet
  • Guides89
  • OrderBy scene
  • Each guideBands, albums, where to start

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This hub gathers the progressive rock violin, flute and horn players covered on Prog Atlas: violinists, flautists, saxophonists and trumpet players, each with a guide to the bands, the key albums and a place to start.

Players who also sang or played keyboards are listed here when the violin, the flute or the horn is a defining part of their work; the guide itself covers the rest.

Bands to start from

Jethro TullIan Anderson: lead vocals, flute, acoustic guitarCurved AirDarryl Way: violinKansasRobby Steinhardt: violinVan der Graaf GeneratorDavid Jackson: saxophone, fluteFocusThijs van Leer: vocals, keyboards, fluteChaseA section of four jazz trumpets led by Bill Chase

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The violin, flute and horn players, scene by scene

89 guides, grouped by the scene of the band each musician is best known for, in alphabetical order.

British Progressive Rock

Andy Mackay Annemarie Roelofs Bill Hunt Chris Wood Colin Walker Darryl Way David Cross David Jackson Geoff Leigh Georgina Born Hugh McDowell Ian McDonald John Helliwell Lindsay Cooper Lindsay L. Cooper Mel Collins Melvyn Gale Mik Kaminski Mike Edwards Randall Bramblett Ray Thomas Wilfred Gibson

Italian Progressive Rock (RPI)

Alessandro Papotto Claudio Fasoli Elio D’Anna Enzo Avitabile James Senese Larry Nocella Lucio Fabbri Maurizio Giammarco Mauro Pagani Victor Edouard Busnello

German Progressive Rock & Krautrock

Chris Karrer Chuck Henderson Hoshiko Yamane Linda Spa Steve Jolliffe

American Progressive Rock

Bill Evans David Ragsdale James E. Pugh Jean-Luc Ponty Jerry Goodman Joe Deninzon Joe Farrell Mark O’Connor

Modern Progressive Rock

Theo Travis Tirill Mohn

The Canterbury Scene

Alan Wakeman Bob Bertles Brian Smith Didier Malherbe Elton Dean Gary Windo Graham Clark Harry Beckett Ian Carr Jimmy Hastings Karl Jenkins Lyn Dobson Mark Charig Nick Evans Phil Todd Tim Whitehead Tony Coe Tony Roberts

Symphonic Progressive Rock

Charlie Mariano Didier Lockwood Miles Golding Robert Gillies Tamás Somló Yochk’o Seffer

Post-Rock & Math Rock

Sophie Trudeau

Experimental & Post-Metal

Mia Matsumiya

Jazz Rock & Fusion

Andrew White Barbara Thompson Bill Chase Bob Sheppard Dave Quincy Dick Heckstall-Smith Dick Morrissey Klaus Doldinger Olaf Kübler Wayne Shorter

Progressive Folk

Anne-Marie Helder Richard Harvey Troy Donockley

Indo-Prog & Raga Rock

Raja Ram

Eclectic Prog

Don Weller Joe O’Donnell

Further reading on the blog

For rankings, see the best violinists in prog rock, the best flautists in prog rock and the best saxophonists in prog rock. For the music itself, try the best violin moments in prog rock, the best flute moments in prog rock and the best saxophone moments in prog rock, or read about Ian Anderson's flute and what an electric violin is.

How these guides work

Each musician guide follows the same plan: the bands, the albums where the playing can be heard, the line-ups the musician was part of and a place to start. A musician who played in several bands has one guide, filed under the band that made the name, with links to all the others. The guides go online in stages, scene by scene.