Martha Councell-Vargas is an assistant professor in the School of Music at Western Michigan University, where she teaches flute and performs with the Western Wind Quintet, a resident faculty ensemble. She earned degrees from the Oberlin Conservatory, Rice University's Shepherd School of Music and a Doctor of Musical Arts degree at the University of Iowa.

An energetic and inventive artist, Councell-Vargas has performed as a soloist and chamber musician in Central and South America, Europe and across the United States. With a scholarly and artistic specialization in the music of Latin America and the Caribbean, she has participated as a guest artist in the Festival Internacional de Flautistas in Lima, Peru (2006), the Convencion Internacional de Flautistas en el Centro del Mundo in Quito, Ecuador (2009), and in Panama City, Panama for the Asociacion Nacional de Conciertos (1996). She has performed across the United States in recital and concerto appearances, as a soloist with the Hartford Symphony Orchestra, Northwest Iowa Symphony Orchestra and on the Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concert Series at the Chicago Cultural Center.

Councell-Vargas is a top prizewinner in several national competitions, including the National Flute Association's Young Artist Competition (2000), Frank Bowen Flute Competition (Albuquerque, 1996) and the Flute Talk Competition (Chicago, 1996). Other international appearances include Paris, France, where she was invited to perform at the Jean Pierre Rampal International Concours de Flûte in 2005, and Uelzen, Germany, where she was the only American to participate in the International Friedrich Kuhlau flute competition (2007), and was honored as a semi-finalist. In the summer of 2007 she toured the United Kingdom, with performances in London and Dublin.

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