Cuban-American flutist, Alyssa Mena, grew up in a bilingual household surrounded by different genres of music. She began piano lessons at the age of 8 and began playing the flute at the age of 11. A native of Miami, Florida, Mena graduated from a performing arts high school, New World School of the Arts (NWSA) in 2015. While she was at NWSA, she performed a full solo recital every year. She is currently majoring in Instrumental Performance at the University of Miami Frost School of Music, where she studies privately with Trudy Kane. Mena is a Stamps Distinguished Ensemble Scholar and a member of the Stamps Woodwind Quintet, as part of a 4-year fellowship, Class of 2019, coached by faculty mentor Robert Weiner.
While at the Frost School of Music, Mena has had the opportunity to perform extensively with various ensembles, such as the Stamps Woodwind Quintet, Frost Wind Ensemble, Frost Symphonic Winds, Ensemble Ibis (New Music Ensemble), Frost Flute Ensemble, and Frost Symphony Orchestra. In addition to traditional classical ensembles, Mena has also enjoyed collaborating with jazz ensembles such as the Concert Jazz Band and ECM (Edition of Contemporary Music) Ensemble. Throughout her years at FSOM, Mena has had the chance to perform in masterclasses with renowned flutists such as Sir James Galway, Aaron Goldman, Valerie Coleman-Page, Jeff Zook, Jennifer Grim, Brook Ferguson, Elizabeth Rowe, and Marina Piccinini.
In 2014, Mena was a featured soloist with the NWSA Symphony Orchestra Concerto Competition winners’ concert; she performed the first movement of Jacques Ibert’s “Concerto for Flute and Orchestra”. That same year, she was also featured as soloist with the NWSA Wind Ensemble where she played Joel Puckett’s “The Shadow of Sirius”. In 2015, Mena received national recognition from the National YoungArts Foundation where she was selected as a YoungArts winner in Classical Flute. Mena has received honors from the FMEA “Florida Music Educators Association” in years 2013, 2015, and 2017 by performing in the All-State Concert Band, All-State Symphonic Band, and All-State Intercollegiate Band. In December 2016, Mena was a featured as a soloist in Shelton Berg’s, piece “The Wind”, with the Frost Flute Ensemble at the Midwest Clinic International Band and Orchestra Conference in Chicago, Illinois.
In the summer of 2016, the Stamps Woodwind Quintet attended the Imani Chamber Winds Music Festival for a 10-day program of extensive chamber music study. The next year in 2017, Mena was invited to play at the Marina Piccinini International Masterclass. A year later in the summer of 2018, Mena attended the Orford Winds Workshop at Orford Academie Musique in Orford, Quebec for 2 weeks where she received instruction by Elizabeth Rowe, James Sommerville, James Campbell, Stephane Levesque, and Theodore Baskin.
Mena’s wide work experience ranges as private flute teacher at the Frost Preparatory Program and local music studio Artz Nook, as well as music library clerk for Disney Parks Live Entertainment Express Music Services, where she supports both recording sessions and live music performances throughout Walt Disney World. Mena’s community outreach experience has ranged from performing in pit orchestras, and performing outreach concerts around the city. Mena is currently working on performing for children and adults at local hospitals as a part of the RESS Family Hospital Performance Project at FSOM.