Violinist Melanie Riordan is a performer and educator based in New York City. For the last decade she has spread the joy of music through her versatile performances and strong educational efforts. She has performed in some of the most prestigious concert halls, and taught hundreds of students across the United States, Canada, Europe, and Asia. Captivated by various styles of early music, Melanie enjoys a career focused on historically informed performance practice, regularly appearing with Baroque ensembles such as the Mercury Baroque Chamber Orchestra, Ars Lyrica Houston, Seraphic Fire, and the Smithsonian Academy Orchestra. She has performed on Columbia Sacred Music’s concert series, served as Concertmaster for the Amherst Early Music Festival, and has attended the Virginia Baroque Academy and Tafelmusik Baroque Summer Institutes. In addition to her substantial experience with historical performance, Melanie is also an advocate for contemporary music. She has premiered dozens of works by today's emerging and leading composers, including Christopher Theofanidis, David Lang, Annie Gosfield, and Matthias Pintscher among others, and has performed with members of 8th Blackbird, the Bang on a Can All-stars, the Philip Glass Ensemble, the Silk Road Ensemble, as well as visionaries Rhiannon Giddens and Saul Williams. As a Bang on a Can fellow and a DACAMERA Young Artist she held performance residencies at Mass MOCA and the Rothko Chapel, and was invited to tour Europe with the Lucerne Academy Alumni orchestra under the baton of Riccardo Chailly. 

A devoted educator, Melanie held the position of Adjunct Professor of Violin at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, Florida from 2019-2021. Passionate about the power of music to empower marginalized communities, Melanie served on an advisory panel to create and launch the Houston Youth Symphony Coda Music program. She has taught at Sistemang Pilipino in Cebu City, Philippines and the Miami Music Project, programs inspired by the famed “El Sistema” music education model, which provide free music education and instruments to underprivileged and at-risk children. Additionally, she is the Founder and Artistic Director of the Summer Strings Academy for Girls, an online summer festival for female-identifying string students from around the world. Melanie received her pedagogical training from Mimi Zweig, Brenda Brenner, Rebecca Henry, Charles Krigbaum, Edmund Sprunger, and Ed Kreitman. She is currently pursuing her Doctoral degree at Stony Brook University where she studies with Jennifer Frautschi, Philip Setzer, Hagai Shaham, and Arthur Haas, and is on faculty at Third Street Music School Settlement, the Lucy Moses School at the Kaufman Music Center, and Hoff-Barthelson Music School.