A versatile musician, Melanie embraces fiddle, jazz & rock alongside her classical upbringings.

A versatile musician, Melanie embraces fiddle, jazz & rock alongside her classical upbringings.

Melanie Belongia is a native of Chesapeake, Virginia and attended the Virginia Governor's School for the Arts. Starting violin at age 8, she later studied violin with Ray Pancarowicz, Dora Mullins & viola with Dr. John MacCormack. She studied violin performance at the Hartt School of Music, University of Hartford with Eugene Drucker of the Grammy award winning Emerson String Quartet and Teri Einfeldt, renown Suzuki pedagogue. While at Hartt, Melanie played violin in the Katahdin String Quartet.

During her time in Boston, Melanie freelanced throughout New England,  performing in chamber orchestras, symphonies, and ballet/opera/theatre pit orchestras, including: Nashua Symphony, New England Dance Ensemble, Andover Choral Society, Boston Virtuosi, Cambridge Symphony, Boston Civic Symphony, Conductor's Institute Orchestra; international performances with ensembles in England, France, Denmark; performed by invitation at University of Nevada, Las Vegas' Las Vegas Music Festival Summer, 2000; and in Guadalajara, Mexico with the Orcquesta Filharmonica de Jalisco, 2005. She also played violin with New Hampshire's roots/rock band Big Chicken(Dave Marshall), 1999/2000.

She served on the board of directors of one of the area's prominent youth orchestras, Bay Youth Orchestras of Virginia, from 2012-2014. She currently performs with Solessin and Bound Roots.