Alyssa Rodriguez

Raised next to a farm in the woods of Connecticut, Alyssa Rodriguez came to Rochester in 2014 to work as an AmericCorps Volunteer Teacher. She earned her bachelor’s degree in music composition from Ithaca College in the Finger Lakes, where she began immersing herself in fiddle music and playing for dances. In 2015, Alyssa interned at WXXI Classical and fell in love with Classical radio.

Fast forward to 2021-2022: Alyssa received a prestigious Fulbright Fellowship to study and research Nordic folk music in Helsinki, Finland at the internationally renowned Sibelius Academy music conservatory.

Since she returned to Rochester in 2022, Alyssa has been teaching, performing, and hosting as a casual announcer at WXXI Classical. She maintains an active performance career as one of the few performers of the Swedish nyckelharpa (pictured above) in the United States. You can learn more about Alyssa on her website https://alyssafiddle.com.