Leela Breithaupt

For her fellowship, flutist Leela Breithaupt travelled across Europe to research the birth of the flute and its connection to singing. Across Hamburg, Geneva, Berlin, and several other destinations, Breithaupt visited flute collections and museums, Baroque palaces, churches, and castles. Sans Souci in Potsdam, Doge's Palace in Venice, St. Bavo's Cathedral in Ghent, and the Berlin Musical Instrument Museum were just a few of the marvellous attractions. She also met top European Baroque flutists and experts such as Barthold Kuijken and Jan de Winne. The entire journey served as inspiration for her album with Naxos Records, appropriately titled The Birth of the Flute, which focused on the music of Michel Pignolet de Montéclair. Interacting with experts, as well as the success of the album, led to Breithaupt receiving multiple invitations to perform and teach in the U.S. and Europe. One such offer was to teach a masterclass and perform at the prestigious Hamburg Hochschule für Theater und Musik in July 2018.

While her talents have led her to far off places, Breithaupt still feels connected to Indy. “In Indianapolis, I am delighted to be actively building a strong network of individual, government, foundation, and corporate supporters. The sense of place and belonging that I now experience is more than I could have dreamed of at the start of this journey.” Her next adventure is in the classroom: she enrolled in an MBA program at Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business. “Having the opportunity to explore and utilize my quantitative analytical capacities along side brilliant fellow MBA students and professors has been extremely rewarding and has expanded my sense of what I can accomplish.”