Guest Performance: Cayla Bellamy, Bassoon

"Since its earliest symphonic and operatic days, the bassoon has adopted a number of characters as its primary associations - the magical, the clownish, the tragic, and even the dying. The newest explorers of bassoon composition, however, challenge this with evocative depictions of native culture, lush love songs, percussive drive, and cries of torment and strength." 

Join Cayla Bellamy, Assistant Professor of Bassoon at Colorado State University and UGA alumna, for a tour of contemporary works by living American composers Nancy Hill Cobb, Reena Esmail, H. Leslie Adams, Jacqueline Wilson (Yakama), and Kevin Poelking.

Dr. Cayla Bellamy is a performer, collaborator, and pedagogue dedicated to advancing the music field through redefining standard practices in the bassoon studio and chamber ensemble settings.  She currently serves as Assistant Professor of Bassoon at Colorado State University, where she teaches applied bassoon, chamber music, and instrumental and virtual pedagogy, in addition to directing the New Music Ensemble and performing regularly with the Colorado Bach Ensemble and Pro Musica Colorado Chamber Orchestra. As a bassoonist and advocate for new music, she most recently embarked on a performance series presenting modern concerti by Joan Tower, Libby Larsen, James Stephenson, and Mathieu Lussier. This series continues into the upcoming concert season with a premiere performance of John Steinmetz’ newest concerto, The Illusion of Separateness for bassoon and string orchestra. Cayla’s contemporary music ventures extend beyond large ensemble works, including the world premieres of of Kevin Poelking’s There and Back for bassoon and piano and Denzel Washington’s A Moment on the Coastal Plains for unaccompanied bassoon, in addition to the recording premiere of Amy Beth Kirsten’s World Under Glass for five bassoons. 

She is also in the process of commissioning three new works by Ashley Floyd (for bassoon ensemble) and Frank Horvat (for flute and bassoon). Her debut album, Double or Nothing (2018), consists of premiere recordings for solo and duo bassoon and is available through the Mark Masters label on iTunes, Amazon, and Spotify. Recordings from this album earned her first honorable mention in the American Prize 2020 Ernst Bacon Prize for the Performance of American Music, and she is currently recording her second project, a collection of new compositions for bassoon titled American Bassoon Voices. 

Cayla holds a Doctor of Music degree in Bassoon Performance and Literature from the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, in addition to Bachelor and Master of Music degrees in Music Education and Bassoon Performance from the University of Georgia, where she was distinguished as a National Presser Scholar. Her primary teachers include William Ludwig, Amy Pollard, William Davis, with additional studies with Nancy Goeres and Per Hannevold at the Aspen Music Festival and School. In addition to professional affiliations with the National Association for Music Education, College Music Society, and National Association of Wind and Percussion Instructors, she serves currently on the staff of the International Double Reed Society as Communications Coordinator and previously on the conducting faculties of the New York Summer School of the Arts and Emory Youth Symphony Orchestra. 

Offstage, Cayla is an amateur endurance athlete with academic research focusing on coaching methodologies, burnout, and the intersections of artistic and athletic training.