Today we’d like to introduce you to Megan Natoli
Hi Megan, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I am a flutist, educator, and arts administrator from Baltimore, Maryland. This is the story about how a childhood heartbreak led to a magical time of discovery that ultimately fueled a career.
Chapter 1:
I first began playing the flute at the age of 9 through my elementary school band program. Though I always enjoyed playing the flute, my first passion was the sport of gymnastics. During this time, I thought of little else and the flute was very much a side activity for me. I spent most of my childhood flipping around, whether I was at the gym, at home, or at my soccer games.
Yes…I was the kid at the back of the soccer field during games doing handstands, back handsprings, and aerials instead of going after the soccer ball.
When I was thirteen, I fell from the high bar during gymnastics practice and sustained an injury to my right arm. I didn’t know it at the time, but that fall marked the beginning of the end of my days as a gymnast. I fractured my right wrist and tore most of the ligaments in my right elbow due to hyperextension, making it so that my arm was stuck at a 90 degree angle for a number of months. The road to recovery was incredibly painful. I went through extensive treatments and physical therapy, as I was determined to get back into the gym as soon as possible.
Once I recovered, I made my comeback. It was exhilarating to be back in the gym and to be able to compete on my high school team. A few months into my return, however, I fell on a vault landing during practice. I reached my arms out to break the fall, causing another hyperextension of my right elbow.
It was at that point that my doctor talked with my family and I about severe hypermobility as the underlying cause of my past and present injuries. He advised that I give up the sport because much more substantial injuries were sure to come if I continued on this path. This news was devastating, but I ultimately made the decision that it was time to hang up the leotard.
Up until that point, gymnastics was the activity that centered me and it was all I knew. It provided me with routine and structure, gave purpose to my days, and helped me develop a strong sense of dedication, and a fierce determination to do anything I set my mind to.
Chapter 2:
The transition to life outside of the gym during my teenage years was a sad time of my childhood. I went from thinking of little else outside of gymnastics to having it all ripped away. I felt lost and frustrated with my body, and very quickly sought a replacement for my newfound availability, both physically and emotionally.
Around this time, I began intensely practicing the flute day and night, often pulling all nighters to play into the early morning hours before school. I quickly fell head over heels in love with instrumental music, from the world of folk music to symphonic music, and everything in between. I spent hours each night recording on our first household computer, a Gateway desktop with an external microphone. I recorded parts of duets, trios, and quartets, mixing multiple versions of each so that I could practice the individual parts along with the rest. I loved trying to blend, striving to play intervals in tune, and thinking about how to best support the musical phrase with each supporting line.
I decided to audition for my high school’s wind ensemble, thinking there was no way I would get in as a freshman. There were many other flutists in the school band with much more experience than me, but I poured my heart and soul into preparing for the audition. I played well and ended up placing first. After that experience, I began to think that music might be something I could do and I made a swift decision that I would become a professional musician. At the time, I didn’t truly know what being a professional musician entailed – it was all very new to me. I just knew that I very badly wanted to play the flute and be the best musician that I could be.
I will be forever grateful for the skills I learned during my years as a gymnast and how the heartbreak of losing the sport led me to that magical time of discovery that greatly fueled my drive to become a musician.
Chapter 3:
I went on to earn a Bachelor of Music in Flute Performance and Music Management, as well as a Graduate Professional Diploma in Flute Performance from The Hartt School, and a Master of Music in Flute Performance from Manhattan School of Music.
In the years since, my career as a musician has consisted of dynamic experiences full of triumphs, growth opportunities, surprises, and detours that have all played a key role in shaping me to be the person that I am today. I have always attributed my sense of resilience and ability to navigate through difficult times back to my childhood love of the sport of gymnastics and the heartbreaking experience of losing it.
I have been incredibly fortunate to have had the experiences I have had playing the flute professionally, working with amazing students of all ages teaching both flute and music in a variety of educational settings, and utilizing my experiences as a musician to impact the lives of Veterans, active duty service members, and their families in my role as the Program Director for Challenge America.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Chapter 4:
In 2018, my health significantly impacted my ability to continue on my path as a full-time freelance musician. As the doctor predicted during my teenage years, my severe hypermobility did prove to cause more substantial injuries, including herniated disks in my lumbar spine, sciatica, and subluxations and dislocations of multiple joints in my body. I was ultimately diagnosed with multiple chronic illnesses that would require extensive surgery, traveling out of state for care, and a convoluted path to healing.
In 2020 prior to the release of the COVID-19 vaccines, I had severe complications from a surgery and found myself alone in a hospital eleven hours from home in the throes of sepsis fighting for my life, requiring two additional emergency surgeries. This experience completely changed the landscape of my path, challenged my sense of resiliency, and is something I am deeply proud to have overcome – though overcoming it is still very much a work in progress, as is the rest of my health journey.
For my first few years out of school, I swam against the current to maintain my freelance musician lifestyle, adamant that I would not let my health alter my path again. Because I was a freelancer, this meant that I did not earn income through all of my surgeries and recoveries, and that the bills piled up.
In 2021, I made the decision to prioritize my health by getting my first full-time administrative job supporting arts integration programming. For a number of years, I felt afraid to step into the full-time administrative side of the arts because I naively thought that it would be the end of my career as a musician. In reality, it’s been quite the opposite. I believe that wearing many different hats is an integral part of what it means to be an artist in the 21st century.
Transitioning into a job that takes care of me with consistent work and compensation, provides me with health benefits, paid time off, and more structure to my schedule has been the most freeing experience as a musician and the biggest act of self-love I have shown myself in my career thus far. The structure of a full-time salaried position is something I am deeply grateful to have access to, as this is not the norm in the performing arts world. To be able to have all of that in addition to doing such meaningful work on a team that truly values me feels like an immense privilege.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
Chapter 5:
As a flutist, I have performed professionally with numerous orchestras and ensembles throughout the United States, including The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Maryland Lyric Opera Orchestra, Baltimore Chamber Orchestra, the Bel Cantanti Opera Orchestra, Syracuse Symphoria, Aternus Chamber Orchestra, The Scheherazade Initiative Orchestra, Hartford Opera Theater, LoftOpera, and as a featured soloist on David Amram’s Theme and Variations on Red River Valley with musicians of The Hartt Symphony Orchestra and conductor Kalena Bovell. Other notable appearances include performing as Principal Flute in the 2016 run of Paula Kimper’s Patience and Sarah at New York City Opera Fest, performing the East Coast premiere of Henry Mollicone’s Beatitude Mass for chorus, chamber orchestra, and soloists with members of the New Haven Symphony and The GMChorale, performing as a soloist with choir on Z. Randall Stroope’s Song to the Moon at the 2013 National Association for Music Education conference, and being invited back to The Hartt School to perform as a guest soloist with the Hartt Symphony Orchestra on Lowell Liebermann’s Concerto for Flute and Orchestra.
I maintain a vibrant private studio in the Baltimore-Washington metro area, where I teach students of all ages. As an educator, I strive to help my students achieve success on the flute while instilling a lifelong love of music and learning. I aim to create a flexible, nurturing, and collaborative learning environment in which all students feel safe, valued, and celebrated and will grow as individuals and musicians. Lessons are based on a strong foundation of fundamental technique and practice methods to enable complete flexibility of sound and expression.
I am also a Wolf Trap Trained Arts Integration Specialist and have taught flute, musicianship, and arts integration in a variety of educational settings, including private lessons, group lessons, and classroom teaching through The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra’s OrchKids program, Young Audiences/Arts for Learning Maryland, The Baltimore School for the Arts TWIGS program, Opus Music Academy, St. Paul School of Music, The Bel Air Arts Academy, and The Annapolis Symphony’s Music Van.
In addition to my work performing and teaching, I am the Program Director for Challenge America, a national Veteran nonprofit. I proudly lead the strategic planning and oversee program execution of our Music Therapy Retreat program, manage our community partnerships, and help cultivate a safe haven of art and camaraderie in our two online communities for Veterans and active duty service members. I have always been passionate about utilizing the arts to create change. It has been a great honor to serve our military community in such a meaningful and impactful way and to bring virtual creative arts resources, workshops, and content to Veterans across the U.S. and beyond.
Is there anything else you’d like to share with our readers?
It is no secret that the field of the performing arts is incredibly competitive. There is an all too common perception that artists need to work all hours of the day every day. I have found that this line of thinking not only inhibits my creative potential, but takes the joy out of making music. Because of this line of thinking, I was afraid to step into the full-time administrative side of the arts for a number of years because I naively thought that it would be the end of my career as a musician. In reality, it’s been quite the opposite.
If I could go back in time, I would tell myself that I am not any less of a musician because I have chosen to dedicate more of my time to an organization that provides me with so much in return. In fact, it’s quite the opposite – I believe that wearing many different hats is an integral part of what it means to be an artist in the 21st century.
Like any profession, there are many different ways to live the life of an artist and find fulfillment. To everyone reading this article across all professions, I encourage you to seek balance between your work and personal life, listen to your body, and treat yourself with grace and self-love in the process.
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