BIOGRAPHY

Greek American music professional Stefanos Melas, PhD has extensive and varied experience as a musician, educator and digital music curator. He made his professional debut at age seventeen, performing Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto with the Georgia Symphony Orchestra. Stefanos has since made solo appearances at numerous venues throughout the United States, including Carnegie Hall. He has won prizes at numerous competitions and also performed throughout Australia and Italy. 

Stefanos attended the Cleveland Institute of Music, where he received the Presidential Merit Award. He earned a Bachelor of Music degree from the Chicago College of Performing Arts and a Master of Music degree from New York University as a Steinberg Scholarship recipient. He later obtained the Professional Studies Diploma from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music on a Presidential Scholarship. His collegiate teachers were Shmuel Ashkenasi, Alexander Barantschik, Robert Chen and Naoko Tanaka.

Stefanos earned a PhD in Music Performance from The University of Queensland, Australia on a full scholarship sponsored by the Australian Government. His research on Leonard Bernstein’s Serenade included the participation of Jamie Bernstein, Glenn Dicterow and Midori. Stefanos also had the opportunity to study the Serenade intensively with Midori in Los Angeles. His research was accompanied by a performance of the work with The University of Queensland Symphony Orchestra at the Queensland Performing Arts Centre in the Vice-Chancellor's Concert Series.

Stefanos has also studied under Masao Kawasaki at the Aspen Music Festival. Adept at diverse musical styles and genres, he has performed in concerts with internationally acclaimed artists such as Bruce Springsteen and The Eagles. As an educator he has taught extensively in New York City, including through the Research Foundation of CUNY. He has additionally served on the adjunct violin faculty at The University of Queensland and NYU.

Passionate about the intersection of music, technology and media within the digital space, Stefanos currently serves as the US Classical/Jazz Music Specialist as a member of Cognizant's global music programming team in New York. Originally from Atlanta, he is based in Manhattan.