Dr. Brynna Paros is Assistant Professor of Flute at East Tennessee State University. An active solo, chamber, and orchestral musician, she performs as a substitute flutist with the Symphony of the Mountains and Johnson City Symphony Orchestra. She has also appeared with Sinfonia da Camera and the Champaign-Urbana Symphony Orchestra and was an associate member of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago. Recent highlights include being named a finalist in the 2025 Krannert Debut Artist Competition and performing Roger Zare’s Breathless with the University of Illinois Hindsley Symphonic Band. Her festival appearances include the Aspen Music Festival and Domaine Forget International Music Academy in Québec.

Active in the National Flute Association, Dr. Paros has performed at multiple annual conventions and begins a four-year term in fall 2026 as Coordinator of the NFA Young Artist Competition. She has also served as an adjudicator for competitions including the Oklahoma Flute Society Collegiate Competition. Drawing on her background in the cognitive sciences, her research has explored how musical familiarity and contextual information shape audience engagement and enjoyment in classical performance.

Dr. Paros earned her Doctor of Musical Arts and Master of Music degrees in Flute Performance and Literature from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, where she studied with Jonathan Keeble. She holds a Bachelor of Music in Flute Performance and a Bachelor of Science in Psychology from the University of Oregon, where her principal teachers were Jacqueline Cordova-Arrington and Molly Barth, with additional studies under Demarre McGill, Mark Sparks, and Nadine Asin.