Pianist Melissa Marse performs extensively worldwide and in American venues including Alice Tully Hall, Merkin Hall, Pierpont Morgan Library, Carnegie Hall, Steinway Hall, and the Gardner Museum. Her Carnegie Weill debut recital (with the Lincoln Piano trio) was presented by the late Isaac Stern in 2001. Additionally, she has been returning guest artist for CarnegieKids, and was music director, coach, and pianist for the Metropolitan Opera’s Growing Up With Opera. She collaborates with members of the New York Philharmonic, Hong Kong Philharmonic, London Symphony, Berlin Philharmonic, and Boston Symphony, and for three years has played in the Mark O’Connor Piano Trio.

Melissa is on the Steinway Artists Roster. As a soloist, she's played under the baton of conductors including James Conlon, John Debney, James DePriest, Lawrence Loh, Timothy Muffit, the late Lawrence Leighton Smith, Yuri Temirkanov, Craig Hella Johnson, and Michael Tilson Thomas. Other musicians with whom she has worked include Vladimir Feltsman, Peter Frankl, Rosanne Cash, Irma Vallecillo, Aldo Parisot, and the Tokyo String Quartet. Radio appearances include NPR’s Performance Today, WNYC, WKBH, Texas public radio, and public radio in Japan and the Slovak republic. Festival appearances include the Pacific Music Festival, Breckenridge Music Festival, Juilliard Focus Festival, Aspen Music Festival, Victoria Bach Festival, ProMusicis Foundation Concerts, and the Isaac Stern Chamber Music Workshop. Orchestra appearances include symphonies in Austin, Victoria, Fort Worth, Vancouver, Baton Rouge, and Breckenridge in addition to various film music studio orchestras in Los Angeles. 

Ms. Marse was a vocal soloist for New Music New Haven, and she sings professionally with the Grammy winning ensemble Conspirare. Additionally, she is a founding artist member of America’s Dream Chamber Artists and founding Artistic director of the Houston Chamber Music Society.

Melissa was the recipient of the Certificate of Distinction for her teaching at Harvard University. In addition to adjudicating competitions and presenting master classes, past academic appointments include Texas State University, Mannes Art Song Institute, and a teaching fellowship at Yale. Most recently, she served as the head of the keyboard department at Houston Baptist University from 2006-2011.

After studying with her mother since age 2 1/2, formal musical training began at age 8 with Betty Mallard at The University of Texas at Austin, where she later obtained an undergraduate degree. Subsequently, she obtained the Master of Music in Piano from Yale University, where her teachers were Claude Frank and Boris Berman. She then pursued Professional Studies at The Juilliard School with Brian Zeger and the late Samuel Sanders before obtaining the Doctorate of Music in Collaborative Arts from New England Conservatory.