(HonARAM MPhil (Cantab), MA (Cantab), DipRCM, LRAM)

Melanie  Ragge’s musical passions lie in chamber music and education. She has performed internationally in venues as far flung as Vancouver Island, Malta, Italy & Sweden as well as UK venues such as St John’s Smith Square and Wigmore Hall.

Originally a medical student at King’s College Cambridge, Melanie ultimately graduated with an MPhil in Musicology. She was subsequently awarded a Leverhulme Fellowship at the Royal College of Music where she studied piano with Phyllis Sellick, oboe with Michael Winfield, and contemporary oboe with Edwin Roxburgh.

Whilst at the RCM, Melanie formed a duo with pianist Ann Martin-Davis, with whom she commissioned a number of new works and made her first recording – Lutosławski’s Epitaph (ASV), as part of CD of his piano chamber music: “everything is exquisitely and cleanly played” … BBC Music Magazine.

Melanie has since collaborated with a wide variety of international artists including the Dante & Schidlof string quartets, pianist Angela Hewitt and baritone Gerald Finlay. In addition to performing and recording with the NLCE, her recent chamber performances have included a Crush Room recital at the Royal Opera House with singer/composer Susie Self and pianist Susannah Stranders, recitals with the Ellipsis Trio and an experimental ‘narrative’ recital for unaccompanied oboe and voice.

A committed educator, Melanie regularly coaches and gives masterclasses; she is an Associate Director and tutor for the National Youth Chamber Orchestra, teaches oboe at the Purcell School of Music is an oboe professor at the Royal Academy. Her scientific interest continues in the form of ongoing research into the use of Electromyography to help to reduce strain injuries in musical training.