Nave Graham

Nave Graham is dedicated to living a creative and curious life through the flute, leading a versatile career as a performer and educator. Dr. Graham is Assistant Professor of Flute at the University of Central Arkansas and also serves on the faculty of the Interlochen Center for the Arts Summer Arts Camp. She previously held positions at the University of Mississippi (Ole Miss), Xavier University, and the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music Preparatory Department.

Dr. Graham has been awarded prizes in various solo flute competitions including those hosted by the Flute Society of Greater Philadelphia, the Flute Society of Kentucky, the Central Ohio Flute Association, the South Carolina Flute Society, the Houston Flute Club (Byron Hester Solo Flute Competition), as well as the National Flute Association Masterclass Competition and the Donald Peck International Flute Competition. She has performed nationally with ensembles such as the Columbus Symphony Orchestra, Memphis Symphony Orchestra, Kentucky Symphony Orchestra, Concertnova, and Alarm Will Sound.

As an advocate of contemporary music, Dr. Graham has received fellowships with various new music festivals including the Toronto Creative Music Lab, New Music on the Point, and the Bang on a Can Summer Music Festival hosted by the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art. She is a founding member of contemporary chamber music sextet All of the Above, which has held residencies at Xavier University and the Cortona Sessions for New Music in Cortona, Italy. All of the Above made their Carnegie Hall debut in 2017 and released their first album, Double Portrait, on Ablaze Records in 2020. In 2024, the ensemble released their second album, Songs of Innocence Songs of Experience, a genre-bending song cycle by Evan Williams.

Dr. Graham is also a member of Eudaimonia Collective, an experimental flute quartet whose “wide-ranging careers and creative practices rely on exploring various forms of awareness as it relates to sonic performance events.” In 2025, Eudaimonia released their first album on Sourwood Records, Longshore Drift, a 55-minute work for flute quartet and electronics by David Kirkland Garner.

Dr. Graham holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music with a cognate in Ethnomusicology. Her research focuses on music performance anxiety and mental health in modern music schools as they relate to Eastern philosophy and psychology. She is a certified mindfulness instructor and specializes in integrating concepts of meditation, acceptance, and self-compassion into music curriculum. Additionally, Dr. Graham serves on the National Flute Association’s New Music Advisory Committee and Pedagogy Committee, working to commission new works for the flute community and reviewing new works for the NFA’s Selected Flute Repertoire and Studies Guide.