Melissa Lesbines, pianist, is a senior lecturer of musicology and applied piano in the Hayes School of Music at Appalachian State University where she has taught since 2006. Over her career, she has performed extensively as a soloist and chamber musician, including regular appearances at Hayes School of Music faculty concerts. She has appeared as a soloist with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra under the direction of JoAnn Falletta, the Buffalo Philharmonic with Mitch Miller, the Milwaukee Chamber Orchestra, the Stamford Chamber Orchestra, the Milwaukee Youth Symphony Orchestra, and the Western Piedmont Symphony. She has performed with such groups as the Cincinnati Percussion Ensemble, Present Music, Essential Music of New York, and toured in the United States and Europe as keyboardist with Laura Dean Musicians and Dancers. Ms. Lesbines also founded and directed the Chamber Music Westchester Concert Series in Bronxville, NY. The series featured performers from the Metropolitan Opera and Metropolitan Opera Orchestra. At the Hayes School of Music, she organizes many of the faculty concert programs presented on both the Boone and Hickory campuses.
As part of an ongoing commitment to student education, Ms. Lesbines has developed online review materials to accompany A History of Western Music (9th and 10th editions), Concise History of Western Music (5th edition), and The Enjoyment of Music (11th-14th editions), Enjoyment of Music Essential Listening (3rd-5th editions), published by W.W. Norton & Company, Inc.
After studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Ms. Lesbines earned both a Master’s and Bachelor’s degree from the Eastman School of Music. Her teachers include Peter Serkin, Rebecca Penneys, André Laplante, and Seymour Bernstein.