Cuban-American flutist Alyssa Mercedes Mena is currently based in Miami, Florida, where she is an active performer, educator, and composer.
Alyssa has given solo performances and performed with ensembles throughout Miami, Los Angeles, and New York City, including the Symphony of the Americas, Miami Symphony Orchestra, Dance Theatre of Harlem, New Conductors Orchestra, Queer Urban Orchestra, String Orchestra of Brooklyn, Broadway Bach Ensemble, Brooklyn Chamber Orchestra, and Brooklyn Symphony Orchestra. Passionate about chamber music and community outreach, she is also part of the Sugar Hill Salon Chamber Series Collective in NYC, which performs outreach concerts throughout Harlem, showcasing wind repertoire that lacks representation in traditional chamber programming.
While in Miami, Alyssa is pursuing her Doctor of Musical Arts in Flute Performance as a graduate teaching assistant at the Frost School of Music (FSOM) under the mentorship of Dr. Jennifer Grim. In addition to flute performance, she is also studying composition with Dr. Shawn Crouch and has a cognate focus in Music Theory and Composition. At FSOM, Alyssa is a Henry Mancini Institute (HMI) Fellow in the HMI orchestra, which tours throughout the U.S. and performs across South Florida. She also serves as a graduate teaching assistant for the Donna E. Shalala MusicReach Program, which brings graduate students into underserved communities to perform interactive concerts and introduce students to music education. As part of her assistantship, Alyssa oversees the Shalala MusicReach 2-1 Classical Mentoring program and coaches undergraduate music majors on teaching methods. At Frost, she performs with the Frost Symphony Orchestra, Frost Wind Ensemble, Ensemble Ibis, and Frost Repertory Orchestra. Alyssa also teaches her own private studio of flute and piano students in Miami, as well as online over Zoom.
As a composer, Alyssa draws inspiration from her Cuban roots. In 2022, she premiered her solo alto flute piece, “Hasta La Raiz,” at the National Flute Convention, which was published by Coleman Page Publishing in March 2024. Alyssa has also written and arranged chamber music for woodwinds and is committed to exploring and honoring her heritage. Her contemporary compositions delve into complex ideas about life and music, seeking to unite people through shared experiences and diverse expressions.
In 2021, Alyssa earned her Master of Music at the University of Southern California Thornton School of Music, where she studied flute privately with Jim Walker and composition with Veronika Krausas. In 2019, she completed her Bachelor of Music in Flute Performance at the University of Miami Frost School of Music, studying with Trudy Kane. At Frost, she was a Stamps Distinguished Ensemble Scholar and flutist of the Stamps Woodwind Quintet, a four-year fellowship that included outreach concerts and recitals in South Florida, New York City, Atlanta, and Louisville.
In December 2016, Alyssa was 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. She graduated from the New World School of the Arts (NWSA) in 2015, where she studied with Suzan DeGooyer. That same year, she received national recognition from the National YoungArts Foundation as a YoungArts winner in Classical Flute. While at NWSA in 2014, Alyssa was a featured soloist at the NWSA Symphony Orchestra Concerto Competition winners’ concert, performing the first movement of Jacques Ibert’s “Concerto for Flute and Orchestra.” She was also featured as a soloist with the NWSA Wind Ensemble, playing Joel Puckett’s “The Shadow of Sirius.”