Biography

An artist deeply dedicated to the range of violin and chamber music repertoire, violinist Violaine Melançon is sought after both as a performer and pedagogue. With pianist Meagan Milatz, she forms Duo M, a partnership that brings a sense of authenticity, curiosity, exploration and discovery to its interpretations, and enjoys presenting unusual gems of the duo repertoire. Violaine teaches at the Schulich School of Music at McGill University where she is Associate Professor of Violin. She regularly gives masterclasses and guest teaches at major peer institutions like the New England Conservatory in Boston and the Glenn Gould School in Toronto.

She was a member of the violin and chamber music faculties of the Peabody Conservatory until 2019 and was during the ensemble’s entire life span the founding violinist of the Peabody Trio, ensemble-in-residence at the Peabody Conservatory until 2016. After winning the prestigious Naumburg Chamber Music Award, the Peabody Trio established itself as an important presence in the chamber music world and as dedicated teachers and mentors to a generation of young musicians. As a member of the Peabody Trio, Violaine gave a New York debut at Alice Tully Hall and performed on the most important chamber music series in North America and abroad. Their reputation as champions of new music garnered them an invitation to the first Biennale of Contemporary Music Tempus Fugit in Tel Aviv, Israel, and the opportunity to commission and perform the music of many of today’s most inspired musical voices. After thirty years of music-making, the trio played its final concert in San Francisco, the city where it was formed.

Violaine is from Québec, Canada. After receiving First Prize in violin at the "Conservatoire de Musique" at the age of seventeen, under the tutelage of Claude Létourneau, she continued her studies with Ivan Galamian at the Curtis Institute of Music, with Isadore Tinkleman at the San Francisco Conservatory and with Arthur Grumiaux in Belgium. While at Curtis, she was a member of the Nisaika Quartet, prize winner of the 8th International String Quartet competition in Evian, France. Violaine is also the recipient of many awards for solo performance including the Prix d’Europe, after which she performed with orchestras in Canada, the USA and Belgium and toured across Canada for Jeunesses Musicales. As a result of having been appointed USIA Artistic Ambassador with the Knopp-Melançon Duo, she toured extensively in Europe, Asia and Africa and made a Washington, DC debut at the Kennedy Center. Since then, her activities as a chamber musician, soloist with orchestras, and teacher have taken her to major music centers in the United States, Canada, Europe, the Middle East and Japan.

She has participated in many summer festivals as violinist, teacher and guest artist, including those of Tanglewood, Ravinia, Skaneateles, Rockport, Orford, the National Orchestral Institute and Festival, Music in the Vineyards and Yellow Barn. These days, Domaine Forget International Music and Dance Academy, the Green Mountain Chamber Music Festival, and the Summer Violin Institute at Northwestern University Bienen School of Music in Chicago are where she teaches during the summer months. Since 2022, she is also summer faculty at the Session Sonates Violon et Piano in the Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean region of Quebec, a program for gifted young players interested in the art of violin-piano sonata interpretation.

Since 2020, her musical curiosity has led her to perform as well on baroque violin and she enjoys collaborating in concert with many Canadian and American early music performers.

Violaine’s performances can be heard on the Naxos, Artek, CRI, and New World Records labels.