Press

“White was an excellent advocate, prioritizing ease and fluency over intensity, suiting the music’s lyric and episodic nature.”

— The Washington Post

“White’s playing was absolutely breathtaking. I have no other words for the grace, precision, and warmth she brought to the stage.”

— MD Theatre Guide

“White’s elegant playing was warmly expressive and lyrical without being overwrought. Her high range was especially glittering...”

— Chicago Classical Review

“Highly satisfying...by making her violin sing elegantly...White clearly connected with the audience and did it without pandering.”

— Aspen Times

“Melissa White...got an extra warm welcome in her home town and lived up to it. “Poeme” is...ideally suited to White’s steady, perfectly weighted tone and deeply centered musical presence.”

— Lansing City Pulse

Melissa White, violinist

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.

In the 2026-27 season, Ms. White will be featured with orchestras internationally including the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra, Lima Symphony, South Florida Symphony, Tuscaloosa Symphony, The Orchestra NOW (NY), and Finland's Kuopio Symphony Orchestra. Last season, Ms. White made her debut with the Seattle Symphony, gave the world premiere of Sophia Jani’s Violin Concerto with the Dallas Symphony, and performed with Northwest Sinfonietta and the Columbus, Johnson City, and Mobile Symphony Orchestras. Recent solo recital debuts for Ms. White include Boston Conservatory, the Spire Center in Plymouth, Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, Chamber Music Detroit, Davidson College, and The Isabel Bader Centre for the Performing Arts in Kingston, Ontario. She has also appeared in recital recently 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. She regularly appears with the Kaleidoscope Chamber Collective, which tours the US in fall 2026, returns to London's Wigmore Hall frequently, and has collaborated with Hilary Hahn. She is also featured regularly at leading festivals such as Festival Napa Valley, Sarasota, Spoleto, and Tippet Rise.

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 Austria’s Graz Philharmonic, the Czech National Philharmonic, Poland’s Filharmonia Dolnoslaska, the Cape Town Philharmonic, the Colombian Youth Orchestra in a tour of that country; 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, as well as in Europe, Africa, Japan, and the United Kingdom. The Harlem Quartet's 2013 recording with Chick Corea and Gary Burton, “Mozart Goes Dancing”, and their work on “Passion for Bach and Coltrane,” with Imani Winds, A.B. Spellman, and jazz trio Alex Brown, Edward Perez, and Neal Smith, earned them a Grammy for Best Classical Compendium in 2024. In 2025, Harlem Quartet earned its first Latin Grammy nomination for Best Instrumental Album with “Havana meets Harlem”with Cuban pianist-composer Aldo López Gavilán.

A passionate educator, Ms. White currently serves as Music Artist Faculty at New York University’s Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development. In the fall of 2022, she also joined the Music Faculty at the University of Buffalo as Professor of Music.

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.