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.
Orchestral highlights of the 2024-25 season include performances with the Baton Rouge, Delaware, Hilton Head, Jackson, Rogue Valley, and Springfield Symphony Orchestras, Orchestra Iowa, and the Cape Town Philharmonic. In addition to her role as the Joyce C. Willis Artist in Residence at the Hartford Symphony last season, other recent orchestral performances for Ms. White include features with the Philadelphia Orchestra (with Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducting), the Buffalo Philharmonic, the Chicago and Northwest Sinfoniettas, the Charlotte, Cincinnati, Indianapolis, Richmond, and West Virginia Symphony Orchestras, and the Aspen, Brevard, Chautauqua, and Heartland Festival Orchestras.
Solo recital debuts for Ms. White this season include Boston Conservatory, Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, Chamber Music Detroit, and The Isabel Bader Centre for the Performing Arts in Kingston, Ontario. Since 2023, she has appeared in recital at Carnegie Hall, Corpus Christi Chamber Music Society, the Phillips Collection, 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 together with Hilary Hahn, and Ms. White reunited 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 appeared with them at Chicago’s Harris Theater last season. Other recent chamber music engagements beyond the Harlem Quartet include collaborations at Festival Napa Valley, San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and the Sarasota Music Festival.
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.
