Kelsey Gallagher

Adjunct | Clarinet

Email: kgallagherclarinet@gmail.com

Kelsey Gallagher is currently pursuing a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Clarinet Performance in Miami where she is a Teaching Assistant and Henry Mancini Institute Fellow studying with Dr. Margaret Donaghue and Mark Nuccio. She is a member of the Sunset Winds, a Miami-based woodwind quintet dedicated to performing diverse and contemporary music, and has performed with the Miami International Piano Festival, the Festival Napa Valley Blackburn Music Academy Orchestra, and the New World Symphony. She commissioned and premiered Garrett Wingfield’s improvisatory I unpeel for solo clarinet and electronics at the 2021 NACWPI Conference, which was also accepted for performance at the 2022 International Clarinet Association ClarinetFest in Reno.

As a teaching artist Kelsey serves as the adjunct professor of clarinet at the Wertheim School of Music of Florida International University and works with the Nu Deco NXT Youth Ensemble in Miami. She previously maintained a large private lesson studio in the Dallas-Fort Worth area and served as a clarinet master class teacher in award-winning band programs including Hebron High School and Flower Mound High School. Her students have received high honors at solo and ensemble festivals and have placed in district, region, and state ensembles.

Kelsey earned her master’s degree in clarinet performance at the University of North Texas, where she studied with Dr. Kimberly Cole Luevano and performed with the North Texas Wind Symphony and Symphony Orchestra. In 2017 she was a semi-finalist in the International Clarinet Association Young Artist Competition in Orlando, Florida. She earned her bachelor’s degree in her home state with Dr. Elizabeth Gunlogson at the University of New Hampshire, where she continues to teach with the Summer Youth Music School. Kelsey’s other creative interests include electronic music and visual art, and she regularly takes commissions for album art and portraits in addition to her original paintings.