Double reed specialist Alyssa McKeithen is a freelance performer who resides in Sarasota, FL.  She currently serves as principal oboist of the Ocala Symphony Orchestra and plays second oboe with the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra (Punta Gorda).  Other orchestral experience includes work with the Florida Lakes Symphony Orchestra, the Florida Orchestra (Tampa), the Sarasota Orchestra, Sarasota Opera Orchestra, and the Southwest Florida Symphony Orchestra (Ft. Myers).  As a representative for Howarth oboes and Moosmann bassoons, Alyssa has traveled to various parts of Florida, Puerto Rico, Kansas, Michigan, Illinois, Wyoming and Wisconsin to give instrument demonstrations and reed making seminars. Prior experience includes teaching and performing in New York, Michigan, Texas and Illinois.  From 1998-2004, Alyssa served as the Instructor of Double Reeds at Texas Lutheran University in Seguin, Texas, where she also maintained an active private studio of middle and high school oboists in the San Antonio area.  While pursuing her Doctorate degree at the Eastman School of Music, she was a teaching assistant in the department of musicology and taught lessons for the Eastman Community Music School.  Alyssa’s primary teachers include Richard Killmer, Nancy Ambrose King, and Leslie Odom on oboe, and Timothy McGovern, Mark Romatz and John Kitts-Turner on bassoon.