Biography
Photo credit: Helen White
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) since its formation. 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, 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), Luduvico’s Band and Sinfonia Australis.
Melissa's undergraduate studies were at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music with Howard Oberg 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 .
Like many of her musical colleagues, in 2020 Melissa has had to adapt to the huge artistic impact of COVID-19, recording concerts for many digital release in addition to performing live in 2020,
The Australian Brandenburg Orchestra's digital platform, Brandenburg One features Melissa performing some movements from JS Bach's Partita in a minor for solo flute, also excerpts from her own curated program for ABO, Ayres and Graces. Melissa has also filmed and recorded with AHE and Wooden Picket Productions in December 2020 and with the Melbourne Digital Concert Hall in June, 2020.
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'.
In April this year, Melissa appeared as soloist with Adelaide Baroque performing JS Bach's Orchestral Suite no. 2 in B minor, BWV 1067. As a concerto soloist, Melissa has appeared with the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra performing J.S. Bach's Brandenburg Concertos numbers 4 and 5, she performed Abel's Concerto in G major with NZ Barok, CPE Bach's Flute Concerto in D Minor with AHE under the direction of Erin Helyard. Previous concerto performances include Vivaldi's la Notte concerto, Telemann’s Flute and Violin Concerto, Telemann's Flute and Recorder concerto, 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 with the Orchestra of the Antipodes. She has worked with directors Ricardo Minasi, Paul Dyer, Stefano Montanari, and Kris Bezuidenhout with the ABO, Marc Destrubé and Erin Helyard with AHE and Miranda Hutton and Graham McPhail with NZ Barok.
Melissa's most recent cd recording is with AHE and Neal Peres da Costa, Beethoven Piano concertos 1 and 3 in chamber arrangements, exploring the stylistic attitudes of the period and colours of the Graf piano in combination with period instruments in these clever chamber arrangements by Vi King Lim.
In 2016 the Australian Haydn Ensemble released its debut CD, 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. Other recordings include The Romantics - Grieg/Mendelssohn/Paganini with Shunske Sato as soloist in Paganini violin concerto with the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra, Australian Brandenburg Orchestra -Brandenburg Celebrates, featuring Melissa as soloist with the Telemann flute and violin Concerto in E minor, Smorgasbord Swedish Baroque and Folk music with The Marais Project featuring Roman flute sonata, and touchons du bois, released in 2013.
Melissa has had more than 20 years experience teaching flutes and recorders, and has given workshops/lectures and masterclasses at the Sydney Conservatorium, Elder Conservatorium Adelaide, 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 was guest baroque flute lecturer at the Newcastle Conservatorium of Music for 2017. Melissa has a busy teaching studio in Sydney for private students and ensembles with early flutes and recorders, also teaching baroque style for modern flute and recorder.
Updated April 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), Luduvico’s Band and Sinfonia Australis.
Melissa's undergraduate studies were at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music with Howard Oberg 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 .
Like many of her musical colleagues, in 2020 Melissa has had to adapt to the huge artistic impact of COVID-19, recording concerts for many digital release in addition to performing live in 2020,
The Australian Brandenburg Orchestra's digital platform, Brandenburg One features Melissa performing some movements from JS Bach's Partita in a minor for solo flute, also excerpts from her own curated program for ABO, Ayres and Graces. Melissa has also filmed and recorded with AHE and Wooden Picket Productions in December 2020 and with the Melbourne Digital Concert Hall in June, 2020.
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'.
In April this year, Melissa appeared as soloist with Adelaide Baroque performing JS Bach's Orchestral Suite no. 2 in B minor, BWV 1067. As a concerto soloist, Melissa has appeared with the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra performing J.S. Bach's Brandenburg Concertos numbers 4 and 5, she performed Abel's Concerto in G major with NZ Barok, CPE Bach's Flute Concerto in D Minor with AHE under the direction of Erin Helyard. Previous concerto performances include Vivaldi's la Notte concerto, Telemann’s Flute and Violin Concerto, Telemann's Flute and Recorder concerto, 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 with the Orchestra of the Antipodes. She has worked with directors Ricardo Minasi, Paul Dyer, Stefano Montanari, and Kris Bezuidenhout with the ABO, Marc Destrubé and Erin Helyard with AHE and Miranda Hutton and Graham McPhail with NZ Barok.
Melissa's most recent cd recording is with AHE and Neal Peres da Costa, Beethoven Piano concertos 1 and 3 in chamber arrangements, exploring the stylistic attitudes of the period and colours of the Graf piano in combination with period instruments in these clever chamber arrangements by Vi King Lim.
In 2016 the Australian Haydn Ensemble released its debut CD, 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. Other recordings include The Romantics - Grieg/Mendelssohn/Paganini with Shunske Sato as soloist in Paganini violin concerto with the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra, Australian Brandenburg Orchestra -Brandenburg Celebrates, featuring Melissa as soloist with the Telemann flute and violin Concerto in E minor, Smorgasbord Swedish Baroque and Folk music with The Marais Project featuring Roman flute sonata, and touchons du bois, released in 2013.
Melissa has had more than 20 years experience teaching flutes and recorders, and has given workshops/lectures and masterclasses at the Sydney Conservatorium, Elder Conservatorium Adelaide, 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 was guest baroque flute lecturer at the Newcastle Conservatorium of Music for 2017. Melissa has a busy teaching studio in Sydney for private students and ensembles with early flutes and recorders, also teaching baroque style for modern flute and recorder.
Updated April 2021
Rembrandt Live with ABO fo the Sydney Festival, 2018. Photo credit: Pedro Greig