biography

Praised for her “beautifully rich tone” (The Flute View) and for her “semi-cinematic songs that could beautifully soundtrack the imaginative pastoral settings of Studio Ghibli animations” (Flagpole Magazine), Dr. Kelly Catlin has established herself as an innovative flutist, composer, and teacher with an entrepreneurial mind. 

COMPOSITION Dr. Catlin (ASCAP) released her critically-acclaimed debut album of original electroacoustic flute works, titled Backstory, in April 2021. She is dedicated to demystifying music technology for performers; as part of her research culminating in Backstory, she developed a curriculum for flute performance students and gives masterclasses on recording and music technology. Dr. Catlin was also the composer and Co-Producer for the original NYC Off-Off Broadway show, Magic the Play. In February 2018, Magic the Play sold out all performances during its run in the Studio Theatre at Theatre Row. She is also the Founder and songwriter/composer for the new indie orchestra, Millennium: The 21st Century Concert. This multimedia pop orchestra merges orchestral and pop genres, performing live original works with accompanying animation projections.

ORCHESTRAL FLUTE Dr. Catlin has performed with the Brooklyn Metro Chamber Orchestra, Young Artists’ Symphony Orchestra of Los Angeles, American Youth Symphony, and the New York City Master Chorale Orchestra, among others. She has performed under the baton of renowned conductors including Leonard Slatkin, Perry So, Paul Nadler, and Alexander Treger. Recently, Dr. Catlin was selected to perform piccolo/flute/alto flute/bass flute in the US premier of composer Vasco Mendonça’s opera, The House Taken Over, at National Sawdust in New York City. In addition to her ensemble work, Ms. Catlin has appeared as soloist numerous times. As winner of the California State University Long Beach Concerto Competition, she performed Franz Doppler’s Concerto in D Minor for Two Flutes and Orchestra with duet partner, Elizabeth LaCoste, accompanied by the CSULB Symphony Orchestra.

RECOGNITION Recognized for her musical talents as a flutist and as a scholar, Kelly Catlin has been the recipient of multiple competitive scholarships. Most recently, she was awarded a 2021 Graduate Research Award through the Willson Center for Humanities and Arts. This scholarship supported Dr. Catlin’s dissertation work for “Backstory: An Album of Original Electroacoustic Flute Pieces with Performance Guide”. In the past, she has been awarded numerous academic scholarships, including the Bennett Family Scholarship for Orchestral Performance, the Martin Figoten Scholarship for the Arts, the Richard and Joanna Baker Scholarship for the Arts, and the New York Alumni Club Scholarship.

TEACHING Dr. Catlin enjoys teaching her private flute studio in Atlanta, Georgia. She is also a flute faculty member of the Flute Intensive of North Georgia (FLING!). During her time as a Graduate Teaching Assistant at the University of Georgia and faculty member at the UGA Community Music School, she used her extensive pedagogical background to teach applied flute lessons to flute performance undergraduate and graduate students as well as non-music majors. While living in New York City, she taught group-flute classes at a public after-school music program, mentoring and creating curricula for flute students. Through the Manhattan School of Music Outreach Program, she toured as the flutist with a cast of selected opera vocalists to elementary schools in the area, performing selections from Die Zauberflöte. Dr. Catlin strives to alleviate the lack of equity in music education and lift the voices of BIPOC and women composers through her teaching and performances.

EDUCATION Dr. Catlin holds a DMA in Flute Performance with a minor in Composition from the University of Georgia. She also holds a MM in Flute Performance from the Manhattan School of Music and a BM in Flute Performance from CSU Long Beach, graduating summa cum laude. As an Ideas for Creative Exploration (ICE) Graduate Research Assistant at the University of Georgia, she worked to further interdisciplinary arts research at the university level. Dr. Catlin has studied flute with Angela Jones-Reus, Linda Chesis, Dr. John Barcellona, Rena Urso, Darrin Thaves, Tomiko Hamai Tsai, and Lisa Lawrence. Her composition studies were under the tutelage of Dr. Peter Van Zandt Lane. She has enjoyed performing in masterclasses for world-class flutists including Jim Walker, Carol Wincenc, John Thorne, Donna Shin, and Emily Beynon.

Thank you to Jason Thrasher Photography for the headshots on this website!