About  Eftihia

Greek flautist and Trevor James Low Flutes Artist Dr. Eftihia Arkoudis leads a multi-faceted career as a performer, teacher, and arts entrepreneur. The Director of West Virginia University’s (WVU) Community Music Program, a Music Business & Entrepreneurship faculty at the University of Florida, and Global Outreach Coordinator of the 2024 Tampere Flute Festival, Eftihia is a visionary leader passionate for arts advocacy, community-building, and empowering the next generation of musicians in whatever part of the world she is in.

As an orchestral and chamber musician, she has served as the principal flutist of the Junges Tonkünstler Orchester Bayreuth, Greek-Turkish Youth Symphony Orchestra, Orpheus Kammerorchester Wien, WVU Symphony Orchestra, Ensemble Retro Wien, Polytropon Ensemble, and various other ensembles, giving her the opportunity to perform in renowned venues of Greece, Austria, Germany, and Turkey. She is a founding member of the award-winning and recording artist ensembles 3Pirouetten (Germany) and BETA Quartet with whom she has won first prize at France Music Competition 2° (2020), Flute Society of Kentucky Quartet Competition (2017), West Virginia Music Teachers National Association Chamber Music Competition (2016), and were the first flute quartet to make it as semifinalists in the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition (2017).

An interdisciplinary artist at heart and “a natural performer who conveys her ideas and narrative very well” (Pittsburgh Concert Society Competition), Eftihia has a knack for adding a theatrical element to her interpretations of new works, and her collaborations with living composers, have led to benefit concerts, seven studio albums, and the delivery of over fifty world premieres. Eftihia has won the West Virginia University Young Artist Competition and International Grand Prize Virtuoso Competition (2016), was an alternate winner of Pittsburgh Concert Society Competition and National Flute Association Convention Into the Music Masterclass (2018), an alternate finalist of the Byron Hester Flute Competition (2015), and a finalist in the Instrumental College/University Performance division of The American Prize Competition (2018-2019).

Eftihia has been invited to speak as a panelist at the 51st National Flute Association Convention, and as a performer for the Walter-Hasenclever-Literaturpreis,  College Music Society Conference, Flute Society of Washington Convention, West Fork New Music Festival, and a number of Society of Composers, Inc. regional concerts. Further, her curiosity for contemporary notation resulted in her doctoral research “Contemporary Music Notation for the Flute: A Unified Guide to Notational Symbols for Composers and Performers” which has now surpassed 13,000 downloads. Eftihia’s academic and overseas musical endeavors have been supported by grants from the Ministry of Culture and Science of the State of Nordrhein-Westfalen, Friends of Flutes Foundation and West Virginia University, and the Susan B. Hardesty (2015), Eleana T. Donley (2015), and Valerie Canady Charitable Trust Foundation (2015/2017) scholarships.

A believer that our youth shapes our future, Dr. Arkoudis leads educational workshops and teaches K-12, high-school and college level students, and adults, including anyone who identifies as disabled, through the WVU Community Music Program and her private studio (Teaching). While a flute instructor at Frostburg State University, and during the pandemic, Dr. Arkoudis launched the inaugural Frostburg Flutes Guest Artist Series (2020-2023), which hosted over 16 international guest artists and 50 auditors from around the world.

Dr. Arkoudis graduated with her DMA and MM from West Virginia University (Nina Assimakopoulos). In addition, she holds artistic diplomas with honors and awards from the Prayner Conservatory of Vienna (Reza Najfar) and the Athens Conservatory (Urs Rüttimann). The latter named her Best Woodwind Instrumentalist (2010-2011) and first Urs Rüttimann Award for Excellence in Performance (2012) recipient. She has performed for acclaimed flutists such as Claire Chase, Alberto Almarza, Krzysztof Kaczka, Lorna McGhee, Francesca Arnone, Erwin Klambauer, and Caroline Debonne, and was selected as a performer for the Jasmine Choi International Masterclass in Austria and the William Bennett Flute Academy in the United States.​ She graduated with her Bachelor of Science from the Technological Institute of Athens with a specialty in Food Technology & Nutrition.