Cynthia Ellis is the Music Director for Laguna Flutes and is the solo piccolo player for the Pacific Symphony Orchestra. She also served as Principal Flute for the Opera Pacific Orchestra from 1995 until the company closed in 2009.
She has served as a member of the Pedagogy Committee for the National Flute Association and also as Program Chair for the NFA’s annual convention in Anaheim, California, in 2010. She has taught on the music faculty at the Claremont Graduate School, Pomona College, Hope International University, Biola College, and CSU Fullerton. She currently teaches applied music at Irvine Valley College, Saddleback College and Vanguard University.
Piccolo is a specialty for Cindy: She has been published in Flute Talk Magazine from 2003 to 2014 as the author of the “Let’s Talk Picc” column and served as an artist in residence at the International Piccolo Symposium in July 2013, held at the University of Nebraska, Omaha. She completed a residency in March of 2017 at the Victoria Conservatory in Victoria, BC, Canada, where she presented a piccolo recital and masterclasses. Cynthia was an instructor for the Long Beach Summer Flute Institute in June 2015. She presented at the San Diego Flute Guild Festival and a masterclass/recital at the University of Redlands Flute Festival in May 2019.
Cynthia has recorded for television, motion pictures, cartoon soundtracks, and commercially released chamber music recordings. “Beyond Beethoven,” with the award-winning Les Amis Musicalles trio, was released on the Centaur label. Jeremy Beck’s Flute Sonata is recorded on the CD ‘Never Final, Never Gone” on the Nova label. This sonata is also dedicated to her. Arioso, her flute and harp duo, released “Petite Delights” on the Centaur Label in May 2016.
Chamber music credits include the trio Synergy with Jung-A Lee, piano, and David Chang, clarinet. The trio was invited to perform at the MTAC annual convention in 2021, where Cynthia also gave the Panel Masterclass and served as a panelist and lecturer for several other events. She is frequently published in the MTAC quarterly journals and reviews new music for the NFA Flutist Quarterly.
Laguna Flutes was proud to be chosen to perform at the NFA Convention in 2021 (digitally) and also exhibited a digital concert at the Mid-Atlantic Flute Convention in 2021. Their first appearance at NFA in person was at the Phoenix Convention in 2023.
Cynthia shares her home with Pacific Symphony trumpet player Tony Ellis and their two Labrador retrievers. Cindy enjoys fitness and is an active yoga enthusiast. She volunteers for Southern California Labrador Retriever Rescue, acting as their microchip coordinator, and also enjoys cooking, reading, and jigsaw puzzles in her leisure moments.
Cynthia is an Artist for Powell Flutes and performs on a custom-made 19.5K flute.
For more information, visit www.cindyellisflute.com.
