Melissa White

American violinist Melissa White has enchanted audiences and critics
around the world for her “warmly expressive and lyrical…glittering” playing (Chicago Classical Review) and for “making her violin sing elegantly” (Aspen Times). Ms. White’s rapid rise as a soloist has captured the attention of orchestras and audiences worldwide, many of whom already know her for her successes as a founding member of the Grammy-winning Harlem Quartet.

Ms. White is the 2023-2024 Joyce C. Willis Artist in Residence with the Hartford Symphony Orchestra, where she will perform both alongside the orchestra and in solo recital, will host panel discussions on pertinent topics in the arts, and will work closely with string students from underserved communities in the region. She looks forward to many other orchestral engagements in the current season, including debuts with the Buffalo Philharmonic and Charlotte, Valdosta, and West Virginia Symphony Orchestras, and a return both as soloist and curator of the chamber music series at the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra. Recent orchestral performances for Ms. White include features with the Philadelphia Orchestra (with Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducting), the Cincinnati Symphony, Chicago Sinfonietta, Richmond Symphony, Midland Symphony, Northwest Sinfonietta, and with the Aspen, Brevard, and Heartland Festival Orchestras. Following her solo recital debuts at Carnegie Hall and the Phillips Collection in the spring of 2023, Ms. White performs in recital together with pianist Pallavi Mahidhara this season at the Binghamton Philharmonic’s Phelps Mansion Museum Series, the Corpus Christi Chamber Music Society, and Purdue Convocations, among others.

 Beyond orchestra and recital appearances, Ms. White relishes the opportunity to perform in chamber music settings alongside close friends and colleagues. In June 2023, she joined the Kaleidoscope Chamber Collective at London’s Wigmore Hall alongside Hilary Hahn, and Ms. White reunites with the ensemble for performances in the 2023-24 season from Germany to major series along the East Coast. She also collaborated with the DUBHE Ensemble in the summer of 2023 at the National Orchestra Institute + Festival and appears with them at Chicago’s Harris Theater this season.

A first-prize laureate in the Sphinx Competition, she has performed with such leading U.S. ensembles as the Cleveland Orchestra, the Boston Pops, the Louisville Orchestra, and the Atlanta, Baltimore, Colorado, Detroit, and Pittsburgh symphony orchestras. Internationally, she has appeared as soloist with Poland’s Filharmonia Dolnoslaska; with the Colombian Youth Orchestra in a tour of that country; with the Czech National Philharmonic; and as a recitalist in Baku, Azerbaijian, and Jelenia Gora, Poland. Her film credits include a violin solo in the soundtrack to Jordan Peele’s 2019 psychological thriller Us; and in addition to her numerous classical performances she has also performed alongside several pop artists including Pharrell, Bruno Mars, Alicia Keys, and Lauryn Hill. 

Ms. White is a founding member of New York-based Harlem Quartet, where since 2006 her passion and artistry have contributed to performances hailed for “bringing a new attitude to classical music, one that is fresh, bracing and intelligent” (Cincinnati Enquirer). Together with Harlem Quartet, she has appeared in many of the country’s most prestigious venues, including Carnegie Hall, the White House, and the Kennedy Center; and toured throughout the U.S., as well as in Europe, Africa, Japan, and the United Kingdom. Harlem Quartet has collaborated closely with leading jazz musicians including Chick Corea and Gary Burton with whom their recording , “Mozart Goes Dancing” won three Grammy Awards, including the Grammy for Best Instrumental Composition in 2013. Harlem Quartet was named quartet-in-residence at Montclair State University in the fall of 2021, and has served as the visiting quartet-in-residence at the Royal College of Music in London since 2016.

A passionate educator, Ms. White currently serves as Music Artist Faculty at New York University’s Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development and, as of fall of 2022, she is also Professor of Music at the University at Buffalo. She looks forward to her Sarasota Music Festival debut as a faculty member in June of 2023.

Born and raised in Lansing, Michigan, she received her BMus from The Curtis Institute of Music and MMus from New England Conservatory, where her teachers included Jaime Laredo, Ida Kavafian, Donald Weilerstein, and Miriam Fried.

In addition to her musical career, Ms. White has enjoyed practicing various styles of yoga for more than a decade, and completed training in both Vinyasa and Ashtanga at Sampoorna Yoga School in Goa, India. She is the co-founder of Intermission, a groundbreaking program that unites body, mind, breath, and music-making through yoga and meditation; the program comprises sessions for students and retreats for professionals.

Melissa is represented worldwide by Dinin Arts Management & Consulting. She is incredibly grateful to be playing a c1780 Ferdinando Gagliano violin, currently on loan from Strumenti.