Flutist Meghan Shanley Alger explores sounds on everything from harmonica and beer bottles to live electronics, knitting needles, and pencils. With an uncanny ability to create specific atmospheres, even the New York Times has noted her “singing into her flute to produce surreal and eerie timbres.” She ventures into the extreme with composers, pushing the boundaries of what is possible to create new worlds. Her performance credits include the Kennedy Center, AMP by Strathmore and Peabody Library of Baltimore, as well as Symphony Space and Carnegie Hall.

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Shanley Alger uses commissioning and programming to advance social change, designing concerts that provoke reflection and audience participation. Current projects include Making Waves, a debut recording of commissions for flute and voice by women composers, with works by Lunon, Socolofsky, and Nourbakhsh, giving women an expressive platform in a world where we are often dismissed. Other projects include a participatory concert in which audiences honor lost family and friends by co-creating a temporary memorial flower wall at the venue, using paper remembrance notes to write messages for loved ones.

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The ensemble she co-founded, Balance Campaign (flute, clarinet, violin, cello, piano, and percussion), is a laboratory of sound and experimentation. Balance Campaign collaborates with composers to reimagine the concert experience and surprise listeners. The ensemble’s debut recording features a work by Nathan Lincoln de Cusatis that highlights human evolution and our impact on the planet. Thanks to the generous support of Opera America, they recently premiered Ashi Day’s Waking the Witch, a chamber opera examining the danger of mixing authority and religion. Upcoming collaborations include a commission from DC-native, Jeffry Mumford, funded by Chamber Music America.

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As a teaching artist, Meghan is Adjunct Instructor of Flute at Harford Community College and has presented workshops and residencies in Italy at the Alba Music Festival as well as University of Maryland and Catholic University. Committed to connecting with students and audiences through shared experience and insight, Meghan regularly presents community engagement performances at schools, universities, and festivals.