Alistair Howlett was born in Sydney, Australia and received his Bachelor of Music degree from the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. He later completed his Masters in Performance at the Hochschule for Music and Theater Munich, Germany with Flute Professor András Adorján. He was Utility Flute with the Opera Australia Orchestra, which performs at the iconic Sydney Opera House, from 2006 to 2013.

Howlett has been Guest Principal Flute with the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Stuttgart Philharmonic, Queensland and Adelaide Symphony Orchestras, tour of Japan with the Orchestra Ensemble Kanazawa, and tour of the U.S. with the Australia Chamber Orchestra. He has also participated in summer festivals including the Pacific Music Festival in Japan and the Verbier Music Festival in Switzerland.
Since moving to the U.S., Howlett has performed as Guest Principal Flute with the Indianapolis Symphony, East Coast and ProMusica Chamber Orchestras, Buffalo Philharmonic, Fort Wayne Philharmonic, Chautauqua Symphony and has performed with the Louisville Symphony and the Lyric Opera of Chicago. Howlett has served as Adjunct Lecturer in Flute at the Jacobs School of Music, Indiana University in 2016 and is currently Assistant Professor of Music at DePauw and Professor of Music at Anderson University.