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, Pro Musica Colorado Chamber Orchestra, and Opera Steamboat.
As a bassoonist and advocate for new music, Cayla began a performance series in 2019 to present modern concerti by Joan Tower, Libby Larsen, James Stephenson, Mathieu Lussier, and Dana Wilson. This series continued this academic year with Jerod Impichchaachaaha' Tate’s Ghost of the White Deer and Jenni Brandon’s Orion Double Concerto for oboe, bassoon, and band.
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 Spirits That Haunt Us for flute/alto flute and bassoon/contrabassoon by Canadian composer Frank Horvat. She is currently in the process of commissioning three new works by Asha Srinivasan and Theresa Martin (each 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 2020 Ernst Bacon Prize for the Performance of American Music, and her second project, a collection of new compositions for bassoon titled American Bassoon Voices, released fall 2023. Live recital recordings from this album’s collection have earned her finalist status in the 2023 American Prizes for Instrumental Performance and the Performance of American Music.
Cayla is also the co-founder of SoundCraftEd, an organization creating educational and performance materials for all musicians. Offstage, she is an amateur endurance athlete with academic research focusing on coaching methodologies, burnout, and the intersections of artistic and athletic training.