Dr. Ellen Huntington
Ellen Huntington enjoys an active career as a soloist, teacher, and orchestral and chamber musician. She has held the Second Flute position with the Quad City Symphony Orchestra since 2002, and she has also performed with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, New Philharmonic, and Northwest Indiana Symphony Orchestra. As a soloist, she has performed throughout the United States and internationally at venues such as the Kennedy Center, the Chicago Cultural Center, and several National Flute Association Conventions. She is a Miyazawa Artist.
Dr. Huntington is on the faculty of North Central College and previously taught at Loyola University Chicago and North Park University. She teaches privately at her home studio in Naperville. Summer teaching engagements include the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater Flute Camp and the Annual Summer Flute Retreat in LaSalle/Peru, IL.
Since 2017 she has served as director of the Naperville Youth Symphony Orchestra Flute Choir, an auditioned group of approximately 25 high school and middle school flutists. The NYSO Flute Choir has performed, by invitation, at the National Flute Association Convention in Chicago in 2022, and the Chicago Flute Festival in 2021 and 2025 (upcoming).
Dr. Huntington joins harpist Lillian Lau in the Lyrebird Ensemble, a flute and harp duo devoted to introducing exciting and unique works to their audiences. They have performed LIVE on Chicago's WFMT, at National Flute Association Conventions in Charlotte, Las Vegas, New Orleans and Chicago, and at American Harp Society National Conferences in Tacoma and New Orleans. They were featured artists at the IV International Harp Competition and Festival in Mexico City in 2016.
As the recipient of a Fulbright Grant, Ellen Huntington studied with Jean-Claude Gérard at the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst in Stuttgart, Germany. She was awarded 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 winner of the Northwestern University Concerto Competition, Ohio State University Concerto Competition, National Flute Association Convention Performers Competition, Richmond (VA) Flute Fest Competition and North Shore MacDowell Society Flute Competition, a prize winner in the Chicago Flute Club Young Artist Competition, and a semifinalist in the Flute Talk Competition.
Ellen Huntington completed her Doctor of Music degree at Northwestern University with the dissertation entitled The Flute and Harp Duo in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries. She was awarded a University Fellowship to pursue her Master of Music degree with Katherine Borst Jones at The Ohio State University. She received her Bachelor of Music degree Magna Cum Laude from Northwestern University where she studied with Walfrid Kujala and Richard Graef.
In addition to performing and teaching, Ellen has served as Secretary of the National Flute Association and on the Editorial Board of The Flutist Quarterly. She is currently Treasurer of the Chicago Flute Club.