“Frances Blaisdell, a flutist who played her way into what was then the male world of orchestral music, becoming one of the early women to play a woodwind instrument with the New York Philharmonic, died on March 11 in Portola Valley, Calif.” Chamber Music magazine wrote in 1992: “Every woman flute player in every major American orchestra, every little girl who p[l]ays the flute in a school band, has Frances Blaisdell to thank. She was first.”