Ellen Huntington

Ellen Huntington enjoys an active career as a soloist, teacher, and orchestral and freelance musician. She is second flute with the Quad City Symphony Orchestra, and she has also performed with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra. As a soloist, Dr. Huntington has performed at venues such as the Kennedy Center, Chicago Cultural Center, the National Flute Association Convention in New York City, and as a guest recitalist at several universities.

Dr. Huntington joins harpist Lillian Lau as a founding member of the Lyrebird Ensemble, a flute and harp duo based in Chicago. Their debut recording, Taking Flight, introduces a unique program of virtuosic compositions for the duo from the modern era.   They presented the lecture recital, “The Golden Age of the Flute and Harp Duo,” at the NFA Convention in Las Vegas and the American Harp Society’s National Conference in Tacoma, Washington. Other noteworthy  performances include LIVE on 98.7 WFMT Chicago, the Mid-Atlantic Flute Fair, Mid-Atlantic Harp Festival, Wisconsin Flute Festival, the inaugural concert of the Quad Cities’ AHS chapter, and the Noontime Concert Series at Chicago’s Fourth Presbyterian Church. Devoted to performing lesser known repertoire written specifically for flute and harp, their repertoire ranges from eighteenth century to modern works.

Dr. Huntington is on the faculty of Loyola University Chicago and North Park University. Her summer teaching appointments include the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater Flute Camp and the Annual Summer Flute Retreat at Illinois Valley Community College.

Ellen is a recipient of the Union League Civic and Arts Foundation Scholarship, the Farwell Award from the Musicians Club of Women in Chicago and the Sigma Alpha Iota Graduate Performance Award. She was the second place winner of the 2005 Chicago Flute Club Young Artist Competition. Other awards include first place in the Richmond (VA) Flute Fest Competition and North Shore MacDowell Society Flute Competition. In 1998 she was a semi-finalist in the National Flute Talk Competition and was selected to compete in the 2007 National Flute Association Young Artist Competition.

Awarded a Fulbright Grant, Ellen Huntington spent the 1999-2000 academic year studying with Jean-Claude Gérard at the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst in Stuttgart, Germany. While in Germany she was invited to perform as soloist for the Fulbright Commission’s Berlin Seminar.

Ellen received her Bachelor of Music degree Magna Cum Laude from Northwestern University where she studied with Walfrid Kujala and Richard Graef and was chosen to perform the Hanson Serenade with the Northwestern University Chamber Orchestra. She was then awarded a University Fellowship to pursue her Master of Music degree with Katherine Borst Jones at The Ohio State University. A winner of the Concerto Competition, Ellen performed the Mozart Concerto in D Major with the Ohio State University Symphony Orchestra. She received the Doctor of Music degree at Northwestern University in 2010 with her dissertation entitled, ‘The Flute and Harp Duo in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries.’ A winner of the 2008 Northwestern University Concerto Competition, Ellen performed the Romberg Concerto with the NU Chamber Orchestra in May 2009.

In addition to performing and teaching, Ellen serves as Assistant Secretary of the National Flute Association, Treasurer of the Chicago Flute Club, and is on the editorial board of the Flutist Quarterly.