Biography

Dr. Marissa Olegario is Associate Professor of Bassoon at the University of Arizona and Principal Bassoon of the Tucson Symphony Orchestra. She also serves as second bassoonist with the Music in the Mountains Festival Orchestra in Durango, Colorado. An active orchestral musician, she has performed with the San Diego Symphony, Phoenix Symphony, Augusta Symphony, and the GRAMMY-nominated ensemble True Concord Voices & Orchestra. As a soloist, she has appeared with the Sierra Vista Symphony, Tucson Repertory Orchestra, Arizona Symphonic Winds, and the University of Arizona Symphony Orchestra.

Dedicated to dynamic, socially relevant artistry, Dr. Olegario is a passionate chamber musician and advocate for contemporary and underrepresented voices. As a member of the Arizona Wind Quintet, she has programmed and performed recitals honoring American female composers for the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment and toured a program of Mexican composers throughout the Southwest, including a performance at the Mexican Consulate of Tucson. She has premiered numerous works with themes centered on climate and nature, including Pine Chant by Lachlan Skipworth (2021), intertwine by Sarah Gibson (2019), and Resonancia Natural by Carolina Heredia (2025). Since 2016, she has performed regularly with the acclaimed Breaking Winds Bassoon Quartet. Her chamber work can be heard on the Naxos, New World Records, and Soundset Recordings labels.

Deeply committed to community engagement, Dr. Olegario's teaching and creative projects are grounded in accessibility and inclusion. A former Orpheus Chamber Orchestra Fellow (2017–2018), she continues to champion emerging artists from historically underrepresented backgrounds. She has served as a mentor for the JustArts Fellowship and currently sits on the International Double Reed Society's Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging (DEIB) Committee. At the University of Arizona, she led the institution’s participation in a commissioning initiative with the Double Reed Dish consortium, resulting in four new works by a diverse group of American composers.

Her pedagogy emphasizes socially engaged music-making. Her students have organized concerts benefiting the Community Food Bank of Southern Arizona, volunteered with Tucson’s River Restoration Project (removing arundo donax, the invasive species used to make reeds), and performed in Musical Murals—a large-scale community event combining mural tours with live chamber performances. After drawing over 600 attendees, Musical Murals was featured in the Arizona Arts Signature Series. Dr. Olegario also hosted the 2022 Meg Quigley Vivaldi Competition Symposium and has been twice nominated for the University of Arizona’s prestigious Five Star Faculty Award (2021, 2024).

Her students have gone on to win orchestral positions, fellowships, and grants; attend leading graduate programs; and build thriving teaching and administrative careers in music. Dr. Olegario earned her D.M.A. from SUNY Stony Brook, M.M. from the Yale School of Music (Alumni Prize recipient), and B.M. from Northwestern University.

Originally from El Dorado Hills, California, Dr. Olegario now resides in Tucson, Arizona—on the traditional lands of the Tohono O’odham—with her husband Cody and their spirited dog, Rocky. When not playing bassoon, she enjoys trail running and has competed in races ranging from 5Ks to 50Ks.