Design © M.Waite

BIOGRAPHY

Born in Sydney, Australia, Melanie began her musical studies on piano, aged 6. At 12 she started playing viola (after a brief affair with the flute), and went on to graduate with distinction from the Sydney Conservatorium of Music on this instrument. During her conservatorium time she was working professionally with the Canberra Symphony Orchestra and Sydney Symphony Sinfonia. The year after graduating in Sydney, she changed to violin and moved to the Netherlands to study with Berent Korfker in Amsterdam. She is a graduate of the Prins Claus Conservatorium in the Netherlands where she studied with Florian Donderer and has also studied with Katy Sebestyen in Brussels.

Melanie is part of the ‘Alinga Duo’ (violin/cello) and performs regularly as a chamber musician, but from her first orchestra rehearsal at age 11 until today, her real passion has been orchestral music. She has held many principal positions with orchestras including; the JMWO (World Youth Orchestra), the IOIA orchestra-summer institute of the Vienna Philharmonic, the Australian Youth Orchestra, and has toured extensively through most continents of the world. Melanie won an internship with the NNO (North Netherlands Orchestra) for 2007/08 and was awarded the prestigious Huygens Beurs (Dutch government scholarship) for 2008. She has also been the recipient of a grant from the Makarov Foundation.

In addition to leading the chamber orchestra Camerata Ardesko, Melanie has just completed a successful 21 performance tour of the Netherlands as solo violinist with Noord Nederlandse Dans for their 2009/10 production 'Avalanche'. She also works as a freelancer, and concertmaster of the SMC-orchestra.

Melanie plays on a copy of the "Goyen" Guarneri del Gesu made by Dutch violin maker Hendrik Woldring (not shown on homepage photo).