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Kelsey Gallagher is a New Hampshire-based freelance clarinetist and educator. She performs with the Miami-based NODUS Ensemble for contemporary chamber music, the InEdit ensemble for improvised music and movement in Somerville, Massachusetts, and a variety of free improvisation projects at Evil Clown Studios in Waltham, Massachusetts. She is also a teaching artist with the Newfound Chamber Winds in Norfolk, Virginia. In 2026, she premiered Pablo Santiago Chin's clarinet concerto, Upper Valley Seasons, with the Upper Valley Symphony Orchestra.


Kelsey serves on the faculty of the Manchester Community Music School, Pinkerton Academy, Timberlane Regional Performing Arts Center, and the University of New Hampshire, where she teaches annually at the Summer Youth Music School.


An active advocate for contemporary and electroacoustic music, Kelsey has presented commissioned works at the International Clarinet Association's ClarinetFest and the National Association for College Wind and Percussion Instructors National Conference. She also premiered her own improvisatory electroacoustic compositions at the 2024 College Music Society National Conference.


Kelsey earned her Doctor of Musical Arts in Instrumental Performance from the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami, where she studied with Dr. Margaret Donaghue and Mark Nuccio, served as Graduate Teaching Assistant and Henri Mancini Fellow, and conducted research exploring multimedia approaches to performance.


While in Miami, Kelsey performed with the New World Symphony, Festival Napa Valley Orchestra, and Symphony of the Americas. She served as adjunct professor of clarinet at Florida International University and taught with the Nu Deco NXT Youth Ensemble. She also served as a teaching artist at the Alfredo de Saint Malo International Music Festival in Panama City, Panama, and appeared as concerto soloist with the South Florida Clarinet Choir. Before moving to Miami, she maintained a private studio of approximately 50 middle and high school clarinetists in nationally recognized band programs throughout the Dallas-Fort Worth area.


Kelsey completed her master’s degree in clarinet performance at the University of North Texas with Dr. Kimberly Cole Luevano, and her bachelor’s degree at the University of New Hampshire with Dr. Elizabeth Gunlogson and Stephanie Jenkins.