Stephanie Rea

Education

• DM, Florida State University

• MM, Florida State University, Flute Performance

• MM, Florida State University, Music Theory

• BM, East Tennessee State University

Expertise

• Flute

• Music and Society

Biography

Stephanie Rea began teaching at Murray State University in 2000. She’s a recipient of the university's Presidential Research Fellowship, its Teaching Innovation Faculty Fellowship, and is a Fulbright Scholar (Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst, 2009).  Her book, Flute Hygiene: A Guide to Developing and Maintaining the Habits the Lead to Better Flute Playing, is the work of her most recent sabbatical. 

Rea has decades of experience playing in regional and summer festival orchestras. Lately, she has concentrated on solo and chamber performing and writing her most recent project, The Next Best Thing: A Flute Professor's Tragicomic Origin Story, a one-woman show combining flute playing and storytelling. 

The Flutist Quarterly has called her "a rising star" and "a name to be remembered". Some career highlights include appearances as a concerto soloist at the International Bach Festival, a soloist at Merkin Hall, a recitalist and orchestral performer at the Rome Festival, and a featured soloist on the Closing Concert at the National Flute Association (NFA) Annual Convention. She has taught master classes at every level from the youngest beginners through doctoral-level university music programs at University of Michigan and Arizona State University.

Named to the roster of the Kentucky Foundation for the Humanities, Rea has published academic articles, written original compositions (available through Veritas Musica), and recorded an album, Solo French and American Flute Music, on the Centaur Records label that can be heard on Spotify and elsewhere. 

She relishes the more menial, task-based, behind-the-scenes kinds of service that allow her the alone time she desperately needs to recharge, though she's been known to step up to the larger roles and offices of President of the Mid-South Flute Society, Volunteer Coordinator for NFA, and Conference Host for the College Music Society. She has served in a wide array of administrative roles in organizations like the College Music Society and National Flute Association and has served as a Peer Reviewer for faculty Fulbright applicants in music. 

Stephanie Rea has taught over twenty courses in the music department, two of her favorites being American Musical Theatre and Music and Society. She is proud to be a part of a university and department that serve a diverse body of talented and interesting students who support each other during their time on campus and in their careers after graduation. She shuns social media but can be found on YouTube and LinkedIn. You can read some of her thoughts on her personal and professional life in an interview featured on The Flute ExamineR

For more information, visit Stephanie Rea's Personal Website