About Me

Dr. Kristina Nelson moved to Pensacola in 2020 and has since dedicated herself to teaching bassoon players across the Gulf Coast region. Kristina started the bassoon in the sixth grade when the band director pulled a dusty case out of the closet. When she moved to Alabama, the Tuscaloosa City School System didn't own a single bassoon, so her band directors borrowed instruments from neighboring counties. Her first bassoon teacher was Dr. Jenny Mann at the University of Alabama, beginning in tenth grade through her bassoon performance degree. As an undergraduate, she attended Brevard Music Center, Eastern Music Festival, Hot Springs Music Festival, and Marrowstone Music Festival.

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Kristina pursued graduate study with Gabriel Beavers at the Frost School of Music in Miami, Nancy Goeres at Carnegie Mellon University, and Dr. Yoshi Ishikawa at the University of Colorado-Boulder. She attended Chautauqua Institute in 2015 and was the Bassoon Fellow at the 2019 Sewanee Music Festival. She presented her doctoral research on bassoonist/composer Bill Douglas at the 2022 IDRS convention, where she premiered Douglas’s Partita No. 3 for Bassoon and Piano with Douglas on piano. At the 2024 IDRS convention, she performed the world premiere of Jenni Brandon's Sun Songs for Soprano, English Horn, Bassoon and Piano with Troy faculty members Dr. Jillian Camwell and Dr. Sarah Wee. 

Dr. Nelson is a member of the Pensacola Symphony and is an active freelance bassoonist across the Gulf Coast. She is currently on faculty at the University of West Florida, University of South Alabama, and Troy University. She coaches local middle and high school bassoons, and evaluates inventory and repair needs at each school she visits. Her private studio is called the “Bassoon Platoon” and plans to take over the panhandle/south Alabama region, one scale at a time.

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