Alyssa Morris Composer/ Performer Bio (2024)

Oboist and composer Alyssa Morris has delighted audiences around the world with her “soulful” and “transcendent”
musicianship (Fanfare.) American Record Guide describes her playing as “stunning,” exhibiting “unmistakable
virtuosity.” Dr. Morris serves as Associate Professor of Oboe and Music Theory at Kansas State University, and as the
principal oboist of the Topeka Symphony Orchestra and the Chamber Orchestra of the Smoky Valley. She has appeared
as oboe soloist and chamber musician in international conferences and other settings in venues throughout the United
States, Scandinavia, the British Isles, Western Europe, Thailand, and New Zealand. She performed as concerto soloist at
the Kennedy Center, and with the Topeka Symphony in a performance of her original concerto Dreamscape.
Regarding her work as a composer, Dr. Morris’s chamber music is performed extensively around the world. Morris was a
recipient of two International Barlow Composition Commissions, and was the Composer-In-Residence for the River Oaks
Chamber Orchestra (ROCO) in their 2020-2021 season. Her music has been presented at numerous International
Double Reed Conventions, the Japan Double Reed Society Convention, the National Flute Association Convention, the
International Clarinet Association’s ClarinetFest, the National Flute Association Convention, and the Society of
Composers Inc. National Convention. Her works have been required competition/ examination pieces for the IDRS
Young Artist Oboe Competition, the IDRS Young Artist Bassoon Competition, the International Virtual Oboe Competition,
the Association of Oboists and Bassoonists of Spain National Competition, and on the Australian Music Examination
Board required works curriculum. Dr. Morris has been commissioned to write music for the River Oaks Chamber
Orchestra (ROCO), the U.S. Air Force Woodwind Quintet, Katherine Needleman (principal oboist of the Baltimore
Symphony), the Richmond Symphony, and Carolyn Hove (principal English horn of the Los Angeles Philharmonic), to
name a few. Dr. Morris has been a featured composer and performer on National Public Radio’s program “Performance
Today” and on Kansas Public Radio’s program “Classical Music in the Morning.” Her music is published by TrevCo Music
Publishing, C. Alan Publishing, and Sleepy Puppy Press, and it has been recorded on the Blue Griffin, Centaur,
Equilibrium, MSR Classics, Parma, Radium, SoundSet, and Tantara labels. Morris can be heard as oboist and composer
on her albums “A Higher Place” and “Ruminations” (available through MSR Classics.) Fanfare magazine writes the
following about her compositions:
“Alyssa Morris…brings something that we don’t always hear in the music of our time–wit. Add to this a true melodic gift,
an ability to evoke a range of moods, and a strong imagination, and the result is a composer whose music is gratifying
even on repeated hearings.”
As a sought-after oboe and composition clinician, Dr. Morris has given performances/master classes to oboe/
composition studios at universities and conservatories around the United States. Morris has been a featured composer
for the SHE Women in Music Festival, resident guest artist for the Double or Nothing Double Reed Camp, and an
adjudicator for the 2016 International Double Reed Composition Competition.
An award-winning oboist, Morris was 2021 American Prize finalist in the Solo Instrumental and Virtual Performance
divisions, and a 2016 International PEO Idagrace Guy Endowed Scholar. She was the only music major in 2016 to receive
a top ten position in the competition amongst the hundreds of female doctoral students who applied from the United
States and Canada.
Dr. Morris is a co-founder of AGLOW Trio with flutist Karen Large and pianist Amanda Arrington. AGLOW Trio is
committed to supporting the creation of new music, and since its formation in 2021, has commissioned new works by
composers Reena Esmail, Grace Baugher Dunlap, and Tony Rodriguez. AGLOW Trio was named a finalist in the 2022
American Prize Competition for Instrumental Chamber Ensembles, and released their first album, “The Light Is The Same”
through Radium Recordings in 2023. “The Light Is The Same” can be heard on all streaming platforms: https://
music.imusician.pro/a/iTpyhwLg. Their second album, “Infinities,” is scheduled to release in Fall 2024.
Dr. Morris earned her BM and MM degrees in oboe performance at Brigham Young University, where she studied with Dr.
Geralyn Giovannetti. Morris earned her DMA in oboe performance with a cognate in composition at the University of
Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music where she studied with Dr. Mark Ostoich, Dwight Parry, and Lon Bussell.