After completing her studies at Juilliard, Wincenc joined the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra at age 22 and served as principal flutist from 1972 to 1977.
[3] Wincenc has been a soloist with the Chicago, San Francisco and London Symphonies, the Netherlands Concertgebouw, and the Warsaw Philharmonic.
[5] Wincenc has performed with the Guarneri, Emerson, Tokyo, and Cleveland string quartets and with pianist Emanuel Ax and cellist Yo-Yo Ma.
She has commissioned more than 30 pieces for the flute by leading composers including Samuel Adler, David Del Tredici, Henryk Górecki, George Rochberg, and others.
[8] In "Carol Wincenc Valentines," published by Carl Fischer, she introduced 11 new works for flute including pieces by Paul Schoenfield, Roberto Sierra, Peter Schickele, Tobias Picker, and Michael Torke, among others.
"[9] In the 2009–10 season Wincenc performed for the first time six newly commissioned works by composers Joan Tower, Jake Heggie, Thea Musgrave, Shih-Hui Chen, Andrea Clearfield, and Jonathan Berger.