Melissa Lindon
Flute
A Howard County native, Melissa completed her Artist Certificate in Flute Performance at Southern Methodist University, where she studied with Jean Larson and Deborah Baron (piccolo). She began her flute studies with her mother, Marlee Lindon, and studied with Emily Skala before attending Boston University. She received her Bachelor of Music (magna cum laude) and Master of Music degrees in Flute Performance from Boston University as a student of Doriot Anthony Dwyer and Marianne Gedigian. Other influential teachers include Keith Underwood, Martha Aarons, David Shostac, and Linda Toote.
As Adjunct Faculty at Howard Community College and Flute Instructor for The Music Institute at HCC since 2003, Melissa teaches students of all ages and levels. She is co-director of "Flute-a-rama," a weeklong summer flute camp in Takoma Park, Maryland, where she maintains an active private studio. Previous faculty appointments include the Greater Boston Youth Symphony Orchestras Independent Schools Orchestra Program, Winchester (MA) Community Music School, Creative Arts for Kids (Reading, MA), and the acclaimed Duncanville (TX) Independent School District Band Program.
An active orchestral, chamber and solo freelancer in the Washington D.C. metropolitan area, she has performed at venues including The John F. Kennedy Center for the Arts, Strathmore Mansion, Fairfax Old Town Hall, the Hillwood Museum, and Buckingham's Choice. A wind quintet aficionado, she is founder and flutist of the Patagonia Winds, and flutist with the Georgetown Quintet, which was nominated for the Washington Area Music Award as Best Chamber Ensemble of 2009. She is also a performing member of the Friday Morning Music Club and co-principal flute and solo piccolo of its orchestra, Avanti. She performed with Boston area ensembles, including the Rhode Island Philharmonic Orchestra, Cape Symphony Orchestra, New Bedford Symphony Orchestra, and Atlantic Symphony Orchestra.
She was a featured soloist with the Meadows Wind Ensemble and the Texas Festival Orchestra, and a finalist in the prestigious Pappoutsakis Flute Competition in Boston. She was a 1996 recipient of the P.E.O. Scholar Awards grant. As a member of the Meadows Wind Ensemble, she premiered Stephen Jones' Passages in Manchester, England and is featured on the ensemble's recording of that work on the CD Snow Tracks on the Gasparo label.
Also a certified yoga teacher (RYT500), Melissa brings particular attention to breathing, posture and body awareness to her flute teaching. She has been featured as a clinician leading "Yoga for Musicians" workshops at the Trevor Wye Masterclass at Boston University, the Flute Society of Washington's Mid-Atlantic Flute Fair, and Howard Community College, and works individually with professional and student musicians to apply yoga practices to achieve freedom and ease in their music-making.