Amy Collins

Oboe

Email: acollin6@usf.edu, acollins@oboe.net
Phone: (727) 641-6737
Office: MUS 336

Amy Collins has served as adjunct Professor of Oboe at The University of South Florida since 2004. She leads a diverse and active career as a performer and educator throughout the greater Tampa Bay area. In addition to teaching applied oboe she is the founder and director of the USF annual Da’ “Bull” Reed Summer Camp, begun in 2003. Collins is also on the faculty at Hillsborough Community College, Florida College, Eckerd College and The Pinellas County Center for the Arts High School located in St. Petersburg, Florida. Prior to her appointment at USF, Collins was on the faculty at The University of Tampa.

Collins earned a master’s degree from The University of Florida in conjunction with The University of South Florida, as well as her Bachelor’s Degree from The University of South Florida. Her primary teachers include Robert Mayer; retired English hornist from the Chicago Symphony and John Mack; retired principal oboist from the Cleveland Orchestra.

Collins has appeared throughout the United States and globally as both a performer and educator. She spends her summers on the faculty of The Governors School for the Arts in Tennessee and teaches and performs in several summer music festivals throughout Europe. She performs regularly with a myriad of ensembles in the Tampa Bay area including as Principal Oboist in both The Venice Symphony and The Villages Philharmonic.

As part of Amici, Collins and fellow USF faculty flute professor, Dr. Francesca Arnone have commissioned close to a dozen pieces for not only flute and oboe but their auxiliary instruments as well. They challenge composers to write for unique combinations of instruments including, alto flute, piccolo, oboe d’amore, and english horn. The group has performed across their home state of Florida (including an upcoming residency at the state capital which will feature the commissioned work of Alyssa Morris and State of Florida House of Representative artist-in-resident, Christopher Still), throughout the US and abroad. It is their hope to explore the various colors of the underrepresented instruments and to commission composers to take the journey with them.

Collins also regularly plays for the numerous touring Broadway productions that come through Tampa. Collins has played with The New York City Opera Company, Miami City Ballet Company, Joffrey Ballet, The Moisiev Ballet, Mannheim Steamroller, Cirque de Sole, and with such greats as Andrea Bocelli, Luciano Pavarotti, Tony Bennett, Diana Ross, Josh Groban, Lindsey Stirling, and Evanescence to name a few. She was honored in the Fall of 2007 to perform for Pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican in Rome, Italy, where she made history as being the first instrumentalist to perform in the Basilica of St. Peters since Pope John Paul I. Collins is president of her own business; The Stellar Corporation, Inc. dba Stellar Oboe Products. In 2023, The Stellar Corporation, Inc. celebrates twenty-five years in business.