Cayla Bellamy

Biography

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 performing regularly with the Colorado Bach Ensemble and Pro Musica Colorado Chamber Orchestra. As a bassoonist and advocate for new music, she most recently completed a performance series presenting modern concerti by Joan Tower, Libby Larsen, James Stephenson, Mathieu Lussier, and Dana Wilson.  

Cayla’s contemporary music ventures extend beyond large ensemble works, and she was a recipient of a 2022 New Music USA Creator Fund alongside CSU colleague Dr. Megan Lanz, which has funded the commission of The Ghosts That Haunt Us for flute/alto flute and bassoon/contrabassoon by Canadian composer Frank Horvat. Additional commissions for this year include works by Jalen Jamal Thompson (for distorted bassoon and fixed electronics) and Kevin Poelking (for flute, bassoon, and piano). Cayla’s 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 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. Live recital recordings from this album’s collection have earned her semi-finalist status in the 2023 American Prize for Instrumental Performance. 

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, and 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 as state chairperson for the National Association of Wind and Percussion Instructors, she serves currently on the staff of the International Double Reed Society as Communications Coordinator and was 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. Learn more at www.caylabellamy.com.