Carla McElhaney

Executive Director

Carla McElhaney engages communities in arts projects and programs that cultivate connection,
deepen self-knowledge, and expand creativity through music. An award-winning pianist, her
playing has been recognized by the Austin Critics’ Table, praised by the Austin-American
Statesman as exhibiting “infectious enthusiasm,” commended by the Austin Chronicle as
delivering “an exciting mix of focus and passion,” and described in the Chronicle’s 2019 “A
Guide to Classical Music” as “absorbing and exhilarating.” An advocate for new music,
McElhaney can be heard on several recordings featuring the music of living composers,
including an upcoming release of Stephen Barber’s 12 Nebulae for Solo Piano, and Conspirare’s
2020 GRAMMY-nominated album, The Hope of Loving: Choral Music of Jake Runestad.

As co-founder and Executive/Artistic Director of Revel from 2009-2020, a nonprofit dedicated
to increasing our appreciation of classical music as a living and ever-expanding art form,
McElhaney produced and performed in over one hundred themed concerts, six summer
festivals, and three recording projects in collaboration with leading musicians, poets, writers,
and visual artists across Texas and New Mexico. She has appeared in concert with Austin
Saxophone Ensemble, Mid-Texas Symphony, NYC-based F.R.E.D. Chamber Players, The
American Repertory Ensemble, Chorus Austin, and more, and has been a featured guest on
series including Albuquerque’s Chatter, the Blanco Performing Arts Series, the Krotona Institute
in Ojai, Beerthoven, and the Credomatic Music Festival in Costa Rica. McElhaney is featured as
the host of KMFA Classical 89.5’s Night Music and was KMFA’s inaugural Director of Creative
Learning and Artistic Director of the Draylen Mason Music Studio.

McElhaney earned degrees in piano performance from Eastman School of Music (BM) and The
University of Texas at Austin (MM, DMA). A dedicated teacher, she has served on the faculties
of The University of Texas at Austin and Baldwin Wallace University Conservatory of Music in
Berea, Ohio, and has taught piano for more than two decades. McElhaney currently teaches at
Studio A in East Austin and has a been a faculty member at Texas Lutheran University since
2009, engaging students in a music appreciation course emphasizing self-discovery and cross-
cultural understanding.