Biography
Based in Sydney, Australia Melissa has a very active and fulfilling career as a period flautist, recorder player, and teacher in the Australian early music scene. She has been Principal flute of The Australian Brandenburg Orchestra (ABO) since 2003, and a core member of the Australian Haydn Ensemble (AHE). In late 2019 she joined four other colleagues from the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, to form Notos Wind Quintet, Australia's premier historical woodwind quintet. In 2021 She formed Notturno, an ensemble with a core of flute, viola and guitar/lute, largely performing music of the Classical and Romantic eras.
Melissa performs and records regularly with Pinchgut Opera in the Orchestra of the Antipodes and has performed with many groups including Ironwood, Australian Chamber Orchestra (ACO), Latitude 37, The Marais Project, The Australian Romantic and Classical Orchestra (ARCO) and Luduvico’s Band.
Melissa's undergraduate studies were at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music with Howard Oberg and Michael Scott and Geoffrey Collins. She undertook post-graduate studies and Masters in modern flute, recorder and traverso with Marten Root, Harrie Starreveld and Walter van Hauwe at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam. In 2012 she travelled to Europe to take lessons with Karl Kaiser, Wilbert Hazelzet, and Lisa Besnosiuk thanks to an ABO International Baroque Study Program and an Australia Council Professional Development Grant .
With an increasing interest in filming and recording digital content for the public at a time when there is much uncertainty about live performance, various orchestras have been creating digital platforms for their audiences. Melissa features on The Australian Brandenburg Orchestra's digital platform Brandenburg One, where she performs the Mozart Flute Quartet in D major, Telemann's solo flute Fantasie in e minor, JS Bach's Sarabande and Bourée anglaise from Partita in a minor for solo flute, and Ayres and Graces, a program of French and English Baroque.
Together with AHE and Wooden Picket Productions, Melissa filmed and recorded Vivaldi La Notte and Hasse flute concerto in b minor with for their first digital film Sacro Amor on their digital platform, AHE Player.
Together with Phoenix Central Park Melissa has recorded Telemann solo Flute Fantasies 6 and 7, and together with Karina Schmitz (viola) and Simon Martyn-Ellis ( guitar) they perform W.Matiegka's 'Notturno'. Melissa has also performed live concerts with AHE for the Melbourne Digital Concert Hall in June, 2020.
As a soloist/ concerto soloist, in April 2021 Melissa performed JS Bach's Orchestral Suite no. 2 in B minor, BWV 1067 in a live concert with Adelaide Baroque.
Melissa stars as soloist in the film Sacro Amor with the Australian Haydn Ensemble performing Hasse's b minor concerto and Vivaldi's La Notte. This film was given a 4 and 1/2 star review by Limelight Magazine.
Previous concerto performances include J.S. Bach's Brandenburg Concertos numbers 4 and 5, Vivaldi's la Notte concerto, Telemann’s Flute and Violin Concerto, Telemann's Flute and Recorder concerto, CPE Bach's Flute Concerto in D Minor, Benda’s Flute Concerto in E minor, Abel's Concerto in G, Mozart’s Flute and Harp Concerto with harpist Marshall Macguire, Mozart's Andante for Flute and Orchestra, K. 315, and Grétry's Flute Concerto in C major. She has worked with directors Ricardo Minasi, Paul Dyer, Stefano Montanari, and Kris Bezuidenhout with the ABO, Marc Destrubé, Erin Helyard, Melvyn Tan and Midori Seiler with AHE and Miranda Hutton and Graham McPhail with NZ Barok.
Melissa's discography includes 11 opera recordings with Pinchgut Opera, Beethoven Piano concertos 1 and 3 in chamber arrangements with AHE and soloist Neal Peres da Costa, The Haydn Album, featuring Haydn Symphony No. 6 in D major 'Le Matin', the Haydn Cello Concerto in C major with soloist Danny Yeadon and CPE Bach's Harpsichord Concerto in D major with soloist Erin Helyard.
With Australian Brandenburg Orchestra: The Romantics - Grieg/Mendelssohn/Paganini with Shunske Sato as soloist in Paganini violin concerto, Australian Brandenburg Orchestra -Brandenburg Celebrates, featuring Melissa as soloist with the Telemann flute and violin Concerto in E minor, Smorgasbord with The Marais Project including beautiful arrangements of Swedish folk tunes and a flute sonata by Roman, and touchons du bois, released in 2013.
Melissa has had 25 years experience teaching flutes and recorders, and has given workshops/lectures and masterclasses at the Sydney Conservatorium, Elder Conservatorium Adelaide, Tamworth Regional Conservatorium, Camberwell Grammar School, MLC School, Flute Connections Studio, the Australian Flute Festival and with the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra, the Australian Haydn Ensemble and at the Albany School of Music in Auckland, New Zealand.
Melissa is lecturer in period flute at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music and has a busy private teaching studio in Sydney for early flute and recorder and also enjoys teaching baroque style for modern flute.
Updated October 2021
Melissa performs and records regularly with Pinchgut Opera in the Orchestra of the Antipodes and has performed with many groups including Ironwood, Australian Chamber Orchestra (ACO), Latitude 37, The Marais Project, The Australian Romantic and Classical Orchestra (ARCO) and Luduvico’s Band.
Melissa's undergraduate studies were at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music with Howard Oberg and Michael Scott and Geoffrey Collins. She undertook post-graduate studies and Masters in modern flute, recorder and traverso with Marten Root, Harrie Starreveld and Walter van Hauwe at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam. In 2012 she travelled to Europe to take lessons with Karl Kaiser, Wilbert Hazelzet, and Lisa Besnosiuk thanks to an ABO International Baroque Study Program and an Australia Council Professional Development Grant .
With an increasing interest in filming and recording digital content for the public at a time when there is much uncertainty about live performance, various orchestras have been creating digital platforms for their audiences. Melissa features on The Australian Brandenburg Orchestra's digital platform Brandenburg One, where she performs the Mozart Flute Quartet in D major, Telemann's solo flute Fantasie in e minor, JS Bach's Sarabande and Bourée anglaise from Partita in a minor for solo flute, and Ayres and Graces, a program of French and English Baroque.
Together with AHE and Wooden Picket Productions, Melissa filmed and recorded Vivaldi La Notte and Hasse flute concerto in b minor with for their first digital film Sacro Amor on their digital platform, AHE Player.
Together with Phoenix Central Park Melissa has recorded Telemann solo Flute Fantasies 6 and 7, and together with Karina Schmitz (viola) and Simon Martyn-Ellis ( guitar) they perform W.Matiegka's 'Notturno'. Melissa has also performed live concerts with AHE for the Melbourne Digital Concert Hall in June, 2020.
As a soloist/ concerto soloist, in April 2021 Melissa performed JS Bach's Orchestral Suite no. 2 in B minor, BWV 1067 in a live concert with Adelaide Baroque.
Melissa stars as soloist in the film Sacro Amor with the Australian Haydn Ensemble performing Hasse's b minor concerto and Vivaldi's La Notte. This film was given a 4 and 1/2 star review by Limelight Magazine.
Previous concerto performances include J.S. Bach's Brandenburg Concertos numbers 4 and 5, Vivaldi's la Notte concerto, Telemann’s Flute and Violin Concerto, Telemann's Flute and Recorder concerto, CPE Bach's Flute Concerto in D Minor, Benda’s Flute Concerto in E minor, Abel's Concerto in G, Mozart’s Flute and Harp Concerto with harpist Marshall Macguire, Mozart's Andante for Flute and Orchestra, K. 315, and Grétry's Flute Concerto in C major. She has worked with directors Ricardo Minasi, Paul Dyer, Stefano Montanari, and Kris Bezuidenhout with the ABO, Marc Destrubé, Erin Helyard, Melvyn Tan and Midori Seiler with AHE and Miranda Hutton and Graham McPhail with NZ Barok.
Melissa's discography includes 11 opera recordings with Pinchgut Opera, Beethoven Piano concertos 1 and 3 in chamber arrangements with AHE and soloist Neal Peres da Costa, The Haydn Album, featuring Haydn Symphony No. 6 in D major 'Le Matin', the Haydn Cello Concerto in C major with soloist Danny Yeadon and CPE Bach's Harpsichord Concerto in D major with soloist Erin Helyard.
With Australian Brandenburg Orchestra: The Romantics - Grieg/Mendelssohn/Paganini with Shunske Sato as soloist in Paganini violin concerto, Australian Brandenburg Orchestra -Brandenburg Celebrates, featuring Melissa as soloist with the Telemann flute and violin Concerto in E minor, Smorgasbord with The Marais Project including beautiful arrangements of Swedish folk tunes and a flute sonata by Roman, and touchons du bois, released in 2013.
Melissa has had 25 years experience teaching flutes and recorders, and has given workshops/lectures and masterclasses at the Sydney Conservatorium, Elder Conservatorium Adelaide, Tamworth Regional Conservatorium, Camberwell Grammar School, MLC School, Flute Connections Studio, the Australian Flute Festival and with the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra, the Australian Haydn Ensemble and at the Albany School of Music in Auckland, New Zealand.
Melissa is lecturer in period flute at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music and has a busy private teaching studio in Sydney for early flute and recorder and also enjoys teaching baroque style for modern flute.
Updated October 2021
Rembrandt Live with ABO fo the Sydney Festival, 2018.