BIOGRAPHY

 

Violinist Melanie Waite (born in Sydney, Australia) found her way to the violin in an unorthodox way. Her musical studies began on piano when she was 6, then at age 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. 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 at the Koninklijk Conservatorium of Brussels. During her study in the Netherlands Melanie won an internship with the NNO (North Netherlands Orchestra) and was awarded the prestigious Huygens Beurs/Dutch government scholarship. She has also been the recipient of a grant from the Makarov Foundation.

 

From her first orchestra rehearsal at age 11 until today, Melanie has had a real passion for orchestral music. She is currently the concert master and artistic leader of the chamber orchestra Camerata Ardesko. She has held many principal positions with orchestras and has toured extensively through most continents of the world. In addition to her work with Camerta Ardesko, Melanie is active as a soloist, chamber and orchestral musician with a large variety of ensembles and projects in the Europe. These projects include; a highly acclaimed 21 performance tour of the Netherlands as solo violinist with Noord Nederland Dans for their production 'Avalanche', and a year long season in Germany with the Veenfabriek production ‘Candide’.

 

Melanie plays on a copy of the ‘Doyen’ Guarneri del Gesu violin made by Dutch violin maker Hendrik Woldring.