Professor Leah Forsyth currently  serves as Assistant Professor of Oboe at Northwestern State University in Natchitoches, LA.  NSU boasts a fantastic and thriving School of Creative and Performing Arts.  There are great scholarships available to both undergraduate and graduate students in Music Performance, Music Education and Music Business.  Please contact the NSU Oboe studio at forsythl@nsula.edu and please click on the links below to follow us on social media.  We have a lot of FUN!

Registration is OPEN!

Register Here

NSU Double Reed Day 2025

Saturday March 8, 12-5:30

Oboists and bassoonists of all levels are welcome to join us for a fun afternoon of Masterclasses, reed discussions, shopping, and a guest artist and NSU double reed faculty recital.

All events will be held at the Northwestern State University Dear School of Creative and Performing Arts in Natchitoches, LA. Registration is $25 until Feb 22nd and $30 after.

Please visit our website to find out more information about your hosts, Professor Leah Forsyth and Dr. Douglas Bakenhus, as well as more about Music at the School of Creative & Performing Arts at Northwestern State in Natchitoches, Louisiana… capa.nsula.edu/music.

Meet our DOUBLE REED DAY 2025 guest artist:

COURTNEY MILLER, Oboe

Dr. Courtney Miller is the oboe professor at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, where she teaches oboe, chamber music, and reed making. Before coming to the University of North Carolina, Greensboro, she served on faculty at the University of Iowa in Iowa, Boston College in Massachusetts, and Ashland University in Ohio.

A highly regarded performer and pedagogue, Dr. Miller tours as a soloist, chamber musician, and teacher throughout the United States, Europe, Asia, and South America. Her 2023 tour in Thailand promoted her newest album collaboration, “Hans Gál: Works for Viola, Piano, Violin & Oboe,” released in 2022 on Centaur Records. Also an experienced orchestral musician, Miller has performed in many orchestras in the United States, such as the Chicago Symphony, Orchestra Iowa, Quad Cities Symphony, Jacksonville Symphony, Portland Symphony, Akron Symphony, and the Cleveland Opera. She will perform with the North Carolina Opera in 2023-2024.

Dr. Miller is a versatile artist devoted to performing established repertoire, new compositions, and lesser-known works. Her 2019 album Portuguese Perspectives introduces a collection of world-premiere recordings for the oboe by Portuguese composers and includes several new commissions by Miller. This album and her 2015 release, Modern Fairy Tales, are available on iTunes, Amazon, and Spotify. American Record Guide praises her “seamless consistency in the various registers of the oboe…and sensitive phrasing and articulation.” Fanfare Magazine hails Courtney Miller as “a performer of considerable skill, with an unfailingly lovely sound, abundant technical ability, and a special gift for turning notes into poetry.”  

In addition to collaborations within the field of music, Dr. Miller has a flair for interdisciplinary work. She has collaborated with hip-hop dancer Ernest “EKnock” Phillips, belly dancer Janelle Issis, and most recently, choreographer and dancer Kristin Marrs. Since 2016, Marrs and Miller have performed in many concerts featuring oboe and dancer and have toured together throughout the United States. Perhaps her most daring collaboration yet is Psionic, which explores interactive movement data between oboist and computer through a live stream of EEG data with composer Christopher Jette, printmaker Terry Conrad, and digital media designer Daniel Fine. 

Dr. Miller has authored articles published in the Double Reed Journal and the Journal of the American Viola Society. She has also presented recitals and papers at the College Music Society’s Northeast Regional Conference. Dr. Miller performs recitals regularly at the International Double Reed Society’s annual conferences. In 2017, she was a featured artist at the first international conference of the Associação Brasileira de Palhetas Duplas (Brazilian Double Reed Society or ABPD).

Courtney Miller has a Doctor of Musical Arts from Boston University, a Master of Music from Cleveland Institute of Music, and a Bachelor of Music from Florida State University. Her primary teachers include John Ferrillo, John Mack, and Eric Ohlsson. 

Dr. Miller is a member of the International Double Reed Society, the College Music Society, and Sigma Alpha Iota. Courtney Miller is a Lorée Artist.