Melissa Pena

Melissa Peña is the Associate Professor of Oboe at the University of Oregon. Prior to joining the Oregon faculty, Peña held the positions of Associate Principal Oboe/English Horn with the New Mexico Symphony Orchestra (2002-2011), 2nd Oboe with the Sarasota Orchestra (2001-2002), and Assistant Professor of Oboe at the University of Northern Colorado (2010-2012). Peña has performed with the Oregon Symphony, Seattle Symphony, Santa Fe Opera, Oregon Bach Festival, Astoria Music Festival, Opera Colorado, Kansas 
City Symphony, Jacksonville Symphony, The Florida Orchestra, Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, and Music from Angel Fire among others. Peña continues to perform regularly with the New Mexico Philharmonic where she holds the position of Associate Principal Oboe/English Horn.

As a chamber musician, Peña is a member of the Oregon Wind Quintet and is a core member/performer of Chatter - an innovative weekly chamber series in Albuquerque, NM. She has appeared as a soloist with the New Mexico Symphony, New Mexico Philharmonic, and the Southwest Florida Symphony. An enthusiastic performer of contemporary music, Peña can be heard performing with Molly Barth and Jeffrey Ziegler on David Lang’s thorn (Cantaloupe Music 2017) and contributed performances to the albums: David Crumb: Red Desert (Bridge Records 2015), and New Millennium Music for Horn (Quadre Records 2014).