Flutist Elise MacDonald has provided music instruction and performance opportunities to individuals and ensembles, in one capacity or another, for 25 years. She has had private studios in Newton and Bolton, Massachusetts and Peterborough and Wilton, New Hampshire.  

During her time as a conservatory student at Boston's Berklee College of Music, Elise worked as a music columnist for Stuff magazine (circulation 30,000), reviewing albums across many genres.

Elise was the founding director of Two Rivers Music Studios, a small community music school in Peterborough, New Hampshire. Starting in 2000, she has served as Director of Music at High Mowing School, an independent private high school in Wilton, New Hampshire.  Currently, she teaches jazz classes at High Mowing, as well as coaching students in the process of preparing for NH All-State Festival and NH Jazz All-State Festival and teaching a one-month intensive course to HMS's 11th grade in music history.  Read a January 2010 article on Elise's work at High Mowing from HMS's online newsletter More Notes here.

Elise is a flutist and a multi-instrumentalist (piano, bass, voice). Her background in theatrical voice coaching of secondary school students is extensive.  She has successfully prepared many high school students (both instrumental and voice) for their All-State Festival and college / conservatory auditions.  Over the past few years, she's served as a flute adjudicator for Massachusetts Central District Festivals.  Elise teaches sight reading and ear training for all musicians, as well as contemporary music theory.