Kelsey Gallagher, Clarinet


Kelsey Gallagher is a New England-based interdisciplinary artist working as a freelance performer and teacher. This spring she completed her Doctor of Musical Arts degree in clarinet performance at the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami, where she studied with Mark Nuccio and Dr. Margaret Donaghue, and served as a Teaching Assistant and Henry Mancini Institute Fellow. 

Kelsey enjoyed a diverse freelance performance career during her time in South Florida. She appeared with ensembles such as the New World Symphony, the Symphony of the Americas, the Miami International Piano Festival, and the Last Hundred Ensemble. She performed regularly as a member of the NODUS Ensemble for contemporary solo and chamber music, most recently as a part of the New Music Miami ISCM Festival 2024. This summer she traveled to Panama City, Panama as a teaching artist for the Alfredo de Saint Malo International Music Festival, taught at the Summer Youth Music School in New Hampshire, and was featured as a concerto soloist with the South Florida Clarinet Choir.

As a passionate interdisciplinary artist, Kelsey’s doctoral lecture recital presented her own electronic music compositions, clarinet improvisations, and visual art in an experiential multimedia event. Her compositions will also feature in her upcoming solo performance at the 2024 College Music Society Joint National Conference. Kelsey’s dedication to new music and collaboration with living composers led her to commission Garrett Wingfield’s improvisatory I unpeel for solo clarinet and electronics, which she premiered at the 2021 NACWPI Conference, and which was also accepted for performance at the 2022 International Clarinet Association ClarinetFest in Reno. 

In addition to performance, Kelsey shares her artistry as adjunct faculty at the University of New Hampshire and as a private lesson teacher in Southern New Hampshire. Kelsey has previously served as the adjunct professor of clarinet at Florida International University, and has taught annually with the Nu Deco NXT Youth Ensemble and South Florida Clarinet Choir. Before living in Miami, Kelsey maintained a large private lesson studio in the Dallas area, and served as a clarinet masterclass teacher and lesson staff in award-winning Texas 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.

Outside of music, Kelsey enjoys yoga, kayaking, knitting, and studying Spanish. She regularly takes painting commissions, and her watercolor art has appeared this year on the covers for the debut albums Emigrate by clarinetist Luke Ellard, and Grasp the Sparrow’s Tail by Breana Gilcher’s LA-based improvising chamber ensemble, Petrichor.