Melissa Peña currently serves as Associate Professor of Oboe at the University of Oregon.  Prior to joining the Oregon faculty, Peña held the positions of Associate Principal Oboe/English Horn with the New Mexico Symphony Orchestra (2002-2011), 2nd Oboe with the Sarasota Orchestra (2001-2002), and Assistant Professor of Oboe at the University of Northern Colorado (2010-2012).  An active orchestral musician, Peña has recently performed with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Oregon Symphony, Astoria Music Festival, and continues to hold the position of Associate Principal Oboe/Engish Horn with the New Mexico Philharmonic.  Additionally, Peña has appeared with the Seattle Symphony, Santa Fe Opera, Oregon Bach Festival, Kansas City Symphony, Opera Colorado, Jacksonville Symphony, and the Florida Orchestra among others. 

As a chamber musician, Peña is a member of the Oregon Wind Quintet and is a core member/performer of Chatter - an innovative, weekly chamber music and spoken word series in Albuquerque, NM.  Peña has performed with the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, Music from Angel Fire with Ida Kavafian, and Kansas City’s Summerfest. 

She has appeared as a concerto soloist with the New Mexico Symphony, New Mexico Philharmonic, and the Southwest Florida Symphony. An enthusiastic performer of contemporary music, Peña can be heard performing with Molly Barth and Jeffrey Ziegler on David Lang’s thorn (Cantaloupe Music 2017) and contributed performances to the albums: David Crumb: Red Desert (Bridge Records 2015), and New Millennium Music for Horn (Quadre Records 2014).  Peña holds degrees from the University of Missouri – Kansas City and the University of Illinois studying with Barbara Bishop and Nancy Ambrose King.