Dr. Melanie Williams is a flutist, educator, and composer. Based in New York City, she hails from Navarre, Florida and Newhall, Iowa. Melanie's diverse interest in arts and music began as a Suzuki flute student at the age of seven. As an undergraduate at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music (BM 2012), she was first introduced to the six-holed, one-keyed baroque flute and her loves of music and history have been inseparably intertwined since. In addition to Oberlin, Dr. Williams is an alumna of The Juilliard School (MM 2015, DMA 2020).

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As a flutist in New York City, Melanie has performed with many of the early music ensembles founded here including the American Classical Orchestra, House of Time, New York Baroque Incorporated, Cantata Profana, Early Music New York, and Voyces. She has also performed with the Handel and Haydn Society, Upper Valley Baroque, Teatro Nuovo, Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra and the Westchester Oratorio Society. She has performed internationally as a member of the Juilliard415 student ensemble in France, Germany, and England, as a soloist in masterclass with Louis Moyse in Canada, and on student tour to Beijing, China. As a member of Filigree Baroque, she organized tours to Graz, Austria, and cities within the Florida Panhandle. 

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Education is part of Dr. Williams’s mission to bring new audiences to classical music. She enjoys teaching adults and children and is on faculty at The Juilliard School in the Extension and Pre-College Divisions and at Musart Music. Her teaching includes core courses in music theory, beginning keyboard skills, and historical performance. She is flute faculty at Musart Music and teaches privately.

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Melanie has guest lectured on the Princeton Symphony Orchestra’s Soundtracks series, presenting "Exploring the Flute, Flute History through Historical Instruments" (2019). Her doctoral lecture performance, "Reading Between the Lines: Genre-Crossing Traits and Performance Considerations in Early Nineteenth-Century Flute Quartets by Anton Reicha and Ferdinand Ries," was presented at The Juilliard School (2020). 

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Recent endeavors include composition and video projects. Palisades (2021) is a film created and scored by Melanie that tells one artist's reality during the pandemic. Aviary (2022) describes in music and images what it feels like to live in NYC as a working musician, and Broceliande (2023) is a fantasy tale that weaves duos by Boismortier with a Medieval theme inspired by the Medieval Festival held annually in Fort Tryon Park. She is currently working on a fourth video project that will feature chamber concertos by Vivaldi. 

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Her album Ins Sonnenlicht was released in November 2023 and was recorded with Ke Wang and Ana Kim. It features music by Weber and Schubert performed on original 19th century instruments. Special highlights of this album include what Dr. Williams believes is the first recording ever on an original 19th century Viennese flute of Schubert's Sonata Arpeggione and the original version of the 4th movement of Weber's Trio for flute, piano and cello, Op. 63, which is very seldom, if ever, performed and recorded. 

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