Spotlight | Associate Principal Flute

Shannon Finney

Shannon Finney is the Associate Principal Flutist for the Kansas City Symphony. Additionally, she performs with and is a former Artistic Advisor for, the local chamber ensemble, Summerfest. Shannon’s summer work extends to Door County, Wisconsin, where she serves as a faculty member at Birch Creek Music Center in Egg Harbor. Early in her career she was a winner of the National Flute Association’s “Piccolo Artist Competition” and was awarded a fellowship at Tanglewood. She has performed with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Pacific Northwest Ballet Orchestra, and the Chicago Sinfonietta. Her teachers included Walfrid Kujala, Mary Stolper, and Karla Flygare, and she earned her degrees from Northwestern University. Apart from her musical pursuits, Shannon enjoys exploring various interests, such as the culinary arts, reading, traveling, and engaging in many outdoor activities.

An adventurer at heart, Shannon embarked on a month-long journey in Nepal in 2014, during which she spent two weeks trekking in the Himalayas and reached Annapurna Base Camp. Since 2017, she has relished her first-time exploration of Paris, gone biking in the Loire Valley, experienced whitewater rafting with her dad along the entire 280 miles of the Grand Canyon, and indulged in “glamping” on safari with her parents in eastern Africa. Her most recent adventure was walking solo through much of Slovenia to Trieste, Italy, on the Adriatic Sea. She is eagerly contemplating her next adventure.