Melinda Faylor, a native of Queens, New York, began piano at the age of four at the School for Strings. She received her BM from the Oberlin Conservatory in the studio of Robert Shannon, where she was the recipient of the Dean’s Talent Award. She received her MM in piano performance at the Manhattan School of Music, with help from a Masonic scholarship, in the studio of Dr Arkady Aronov. Ms Faylor has experience as an accompanist, chamber musician, orchestral pianist and solo pianist. She has also studied with John Nauman and Elyane Laussade. Summer festivals include the Mannes College of Music IFCP and IKIF Festivals, as well as the Orford, Las Vegas, Tibor Vargas, and Ecole Normale de Musique festivals. She has worked extensively with electronic music and has performed with electronics as part of the SEAMUS and OCEAN festivals, the NYC International Fringe Festival, the University of North Carolina in Greensboro, Hofstra University, the Great Hall at Cooper Union, and at the University of Akron in Ohio. Her passion for contemporary music led her to join Oberlin’s CME (2000-2001) and the New York based TACTUS and Delancey ensembles (2003-2006) as well.

As a composer, Melinda’s song cycle Jouyssance Vous Donneray was premiered at the international Luce Irigaray conference at Hofstra University by gifted soprano Tiffany Dumouchelle. From 2007-2009 Melinda was a founding member of Dames en Feu, a multimedia electronic cabaret/fire dancing ensemble for whom she also composed electronic and instrumental music.

In 2009-2010 she travelled throughout Australia and South East Asia, studying Gamelan in Bali, performing with violinist Michelle Cassumbhoy at St. John’s Southgate in Melbourne, and performing solo piano on 3MBS Classical Radio in Melbourne. Melinda has also been a member of Cultures in Harmony, a NY based NPO that brings classical music to developing countries and encourages cultural dialogue across boundaries through the use of music. In 2009 she travelled with CIH to the Philippines, where she gave master classes, taught private lessons, helped organize a production at the Cultural Center of the Philippines, gave an interview on the 98.7 DZFE classical radio station and performed chamber and solo music with other members of CIH.

In 2010-2012 Melinda performed with Ensemble 212, Lunatics at Large, the Brooklyn Art Song Society and the Mimesis Ensemble. In 2010- 2011 she performed on student composition concerts at Queens College and NYU. In 2011 she was the musical director and arranger for White Bred, the musical, which enjoyed a limited run at the black box theater of the Red Room in the LES of Manhattan. Melinda is the director of ARETÉ, a contemporary chamber music series (2006-present). As artistic director of ARETÉ, Melinda produced a series of four concerts titled Get Your Gamel-on! (2011-2012) that explored the interaction of Western art music and popular music with Indonesian, specifically Balinese Gamelan. Then, in September of 2012, Melinda produced and performed in the seven concert, NYC-wide festival Cage Hop- a celebration of the life work of John Cage in honor of his Centennial. For Cage Hop, Melinda gave a full length interview on Dan Bodah’s show Airborne Event on WFMU, alongside percussionist and Cage Hop collaborator Frederick Trumpy.  Current projects include work with soprano Leighanne Saltsman, Philadelphia-based modern dance company Vervet Dance, and violinist Gillian Rivers. Melinda maintains a full private teaching studio in Brooklyn, and is the pianist and organist at the Lutheran Church of Our Savior in Mineola, LI.