Abi Middaugh attends the University of Michigan under the instruction of Amy Porter, and performs with the Symphony Band and University Symphony Orchestra at the School of Music, Theater, and Dance.
As a soloist, Abi is the 1st place winner of the 2024 Florida Flute Association College Young Artist Competition and the 2024 Great Lakes Flute Festival Darlene Dugan Young Artist Competition. She also performed with the Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra in November of 2022 after winning their 2021 Young Artist Competition. Abi has performed in masterclasses for Marianne Gedigian, Kelly Zimba, Nancy Stagnitta, Helen Blackburn, Jeff Zook, and Sharon Sparrow, among others.
As an orchestral musician, Abi will be playing in the Aspen Music Festival and School this summer. She was a flute fellow at the 2023 Round Top Festival Institute, the 2022 National Youth Orchestra of the United States of America during their European tour, Interlochen Arts Camp's 2021 World Youth Symphony Orchestra. Abi has also performed with University of Michigan's Philharmonia Orchestra, Concert Band, and Eastern Michigan's University Wind Symphony. She has played in the opera pit orchestras of University of Michigan's productions of Don Giovanni and Orpheus in the Underworld. She regularly works with conductors Jason Fettig, Jayce Ogren, Courtney Snyder, and Kenneth Kiesler at the University of Michigan.
Abi is passionate about bringing new works to life. She has been involved with premieres of Nkeiru Okoye's "When the Caged Bird Sings", a fusion of opera, oratorio, and theater, Griffin Candey's concerto for tenor saxophone, Double Aviary, Ryan Lindveit’s Bass Clarinet Concerto written for Andrew Koeppe of the Akropolis Reed Quintet, Hansol Choi's "Sahm-Doh" for orchestra, and the premiere recording of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s “The Atonement”. She enjoys working with her peers in the composition department, some of whom have written pieces for her.
Abi is also the co-founder of an arts equity organization, called The Intermezzo Fund, along with creator and co-founder Alondra Damian-Noyola. It gives out microgrants to highschool musicians in Southeast Michigan who identify with historically-marginalized communities in order to cover the "invisible" costs of pursuing music, like application fees, accompanist fees, buying sheet music, and instrument maintenance. Their initial campaign, including their Kickoff Benefit Concert, raised almost 5 times their original goal. Intermezzo's first grant cycle will be in the fall.
Besides Amy Porter, Abi's flute mentors include Hannah Hammel of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, David DiGiaccobe of the Harrisburg Symphony, and Kelly McDermott, her former teacher whom she studied with for fifteen years prior to her undergraduate studies.
Abi plays a Muramatsu DS flute and a Hammig piccolo. She is from Ypsilanti, Michigan, and also enjoys running, weight lifting, thrift shopping, baking, and spending time with her friends and family.
