Eftihia Arkoudis
Dr. Eftihia Arkoudis, a Greek flutist and Latin GRAMMY-nominated executive, is a performer, educator, and arts leader. Founder of EVA Arts Collective and faculty at the University of Florida, she champions new music, outreach, and arts entrepreneurship, with performances, premieres, and teaching engagements spanning Europe and the United States.
Greek flutist and 2024 Latin GRAMMY-nominee album executive, Dr. Eftihia Arkoudis leads a multi-faceted career as a performer, pedagogue, and arts entrepreneur serving as the founder of EVA Arts Collective. A Music Business & Entrepreneurship faculty at the University of Florida and Global Outreach Coordinator of the 2024-2026 Tampere Flute Festival, Eftihia is a visionary leader passionate for arts advocacy, community-building, and empowering the next generation of musicians. In 2024, she was honored with the "Outstanding Staff for Excellence" award by West Virginia University and the Community Engagement Center, recognizing her efforts in fortifying partnerships between higher education and the community during her tenure as Director of the WVU Community Music Program (2021-2024).
Eftihia has performed and recorded solo or with several ensembles and orchestras in Greece, Turkey, Austria, Germany, Finland, Luxembourg, and the United States, and is a founding active member of the award-winning and recording artist ensembles BETA Quartet (USA) and 3Pirouetten (Germany). 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. She is a Trevor James Low Flutes Artist and her collaborations with living composers have led to benefit concerts, seven studio albums, and the delivery of over fifty world premieres. 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 surpassed 15,000 downloads.
Among other distinctions, she is a winner of the International Grand Prize Virtuoso Competition (2016), 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). With BETA Quartet she has won first place in the France Music Competition 2° (2020), Flute Society of Kentucky Quartet Competition (2017), and became the first flute quartet to make it as semifinalists in the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition (2017). Her academic and overseas musical endeavors have been funded by grants from the US Embassy (Finland), Ministry of Culture and Science (Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany), 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 students with learning and physical disabilities, through her own private studio and in partnership with local arts organizations in West Virginia. To empower the next generation of musicians, Dr. Arkoudis frequently serves as an adjudicator for youth and collegiate competitions and is often invited as a clinician, panelist, and speaker at university level and flute organization events. 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 worldwide (More Details: Teaching).
Dr. Arkoudis graduated with her DMA and MM from West Virginia University (Nina Assimakopoulos), while on an assistantship, and holds artistic diplomas with distinctions from Prayner Konservatorium Wien (Vienna, Reza Najfar) and Athens Conservatory (Athens, Urs Rüttimann) where she was awarded the first honorary Urs Rüttimann Award for Excellence in Performance (2012). She also studied with the late William Bennett and internationally acclaimed Jasmine Choi. Eftihia holds a Bachelor of Science in Food Technology & Nutrition from the Technological Institute of Athens (TEI).