Kelsey Gallagher is a New Hampshire-based freelance clarinetist. She performs as a member of the NODUS Ensemble for contemporary chamber music in Miami, and as a teaching artist with the Newfound Chamber Winds in Norfolk, Virginia. She serves as clarinet faculty for the Manchester Community Music School and Timberlane Regional Performing Arts Center, and as adjunct faculty at the University of New Hampshire, where she also teaches annually at the Summer Youth Music School.

Kelsey recently completed a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in instrumental performance at the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami, where she studied with Mark Nuccio and Dr. Margaret Donaghue, served as a Graduate Teaching Assistant and Henri Mancini Fellow, and presented her research in multimedia approaches to contemporary music performance. She has performed commissioned electroacoustic clarinet works at the International Clarinet Association ClarinetFest and National Association for College Wind and Percussion Instructors National Conference, and recently premiered her own improvisatory electroacoustic compositions at the 2024 College Music Society National Conference.

During her time in Miami, Kelsey served as the adjunct professor of clarinet at Florida International University, taught annually with the Nu Deco NXT Youth Ensemble, performed with the Festival Napa Valley Orchestra, and appeared with the New World Symphony and Symphony of the Americas. In 2024 she traveled to Panama City, Panama as a teaching artist for the Alfredo de Saint Malo International Music Festival, and was featured as a concerto soloist with the South Florida Clarinet Choir. Previous to living in Miami, she maintained a freelance private lesson studio of about 50 middle and high schoolers in nationally acclaimed band programs in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Her previous teachers include Dr. Kimberly Cole Luevano at the University of North Texas, Dr. Elizabeth Gunlogson at the University of New Hampshire, and Stephanie Jenkins.