‘As always, Alison Melville’s playing is exquisitely executed with warmth, wit and tenderness … these airs, dance tunes, variations and sonatas are performed with the grace, humour and touching sensitivity inherent in the music.’ The Wholenote

Quicklinks to CDs:

The Business of Angels: https://pipistrellemusic.com/alison-melville/the-business-of-angels/

Archipelago: https://pipistrellemusic.com/alison-melville/archipelago/

Fruit of a Different Vine: https://pipistrellemusic.com/alison-melville/fruit-of-a-different-vine/

Since playing her first CBC gig at 20, Alison Melville‘s career as a performer on historical flutes and recorders has taken her across Canada and to the USA, Iceland, Japan, New Zealand and Europe. A member of Toronto Consort and Ensemble Polaris and the Artistic Director of the Bird Project, she plays frequently with the Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra both as a soloist and orchestral player, and has appeared with the Toronto Symphony, Aradia Ensemble, Soundstreams, New Music Concerts, Chatham Baroque, Oberlin Baroque Ensemble, Boston Early Music Festival, Early Music Vancouver, Opera Atelier, and many, many others. Alongside performances in Tokyo’s Bunkamura Hall, Carnegie Hall and other celebrated venues she has also concertized in cinemas, convents, gardens, barns, ferries, school gymnasiums and prisons.

With extensive television, film and radio credits (CBC/Radio-Canada, BBC, RNZ, NPR, Iceland State Broadcast Service and others), Alison has played for the soundtracks of The Tudors, The Borgias and The Vikings, CBC-TV’s beloved ‘The Friendly Giant’, and films by Atom Egoyan, Ang Lee, Amnon Buchbinder and others. She can be heard on over 50 CDs including several critically acclaimed solo recordings. Her own music has been heard with Polaris, ‘999 Years of Music (dir. Peter Hannan), Post-Medieval Syndrome, Ensemble Polaris, the Bird Project, and on soundtracks to films by Stephen Dirkes and Malcolm Sutherland.

Alison Melville was on the teaching faculty of the Oberlin Conservatory of Music in the USA from 1999 to 2010, and currently teaches at Wilfrid Laurier University and the University of Toronto. She studied in Toronto, London (UK) and at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis (Basel, CH) as the recipient of awards and scholarships from the University of Toronto, Canada Council for the Arts, Women’s Art Association of Canada, Royal Conservatory of Music, and others.

For more info, sound clips, etc.: www.alisonmelville.com

‘Alison Melville is one of Canada’s leading recorder players; her performances here combine scholarship, elegance and vitality, and capture the spirit of the music with authority and conviction…a fascinating and thoroughly enjoyable disc.’ 

The Recorder Magazine (UK)