Melissa Willis, a Wisconsin native, has enjoyed teaching both flute and piano to students of all ages and abilities for the past thirteen years. She holds a B.A. degree in Music Performance from Luther College in Decorah, Iowa. She recently completed coursework for a M.M. degree in Flute Pedagogy, with additional studies in Piano Pedagogy, at Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee. Melissa is currently in the process of completing her Masters Thesis, which combines her studies in flute and piano pedagogy and will ultimately lead to the design of a flute method book for young beginners. Her former teachers include Carol Hester, Tim Lane, Wendy Williams, Erik Gratton and Ann Richards.

Melissa is an active performer, teacher, clinician, adjudicator and flute choir director. She has soloed on master classes of internationally renowned flutists Keith Underwood, Robert Dick, Charles DeLaney, Leone Buyse and Trevor Wye. She has also been a featured guest artist with the Eau Claire Chamber Orchestra, the Belmont University Orchestra, the University of Wisconsin of Eau Claire, the Shell Lake Arts Center and various middle and high school ensembles. Melissa has also performed with several chamber and orchestral groups, including the Nashville Symphony, the Belmont University Orchestra and the Eau Claire Chamber Orchestra. She can be heard playing flute on country singer Lorrie Morgan’s CD and DVD, The Color of Roses.

Melissa has maintained several successful private-teaching studios in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Tennessee and Illinois. Her students have received superior ratings in various music festivals and have been represented in several prominent honors ensembles throughout the Midwest and Tennessee. In addition, Melissa has served as adjunct faculty for Belmont University and Freewill Bible Baptist College in Nashville, Tennessee. She currently spends her summers on faculty for the Shell Lake Arts Center, the Northland Youth Music Program and the Chippewa Valley Flute Camp.

Melissa, with her husband and three cats, recently relocated to Iowa City from Chicago, Illinois. During her two years in Chicago, Melissa established a traveling flute and piano studio in the University of Chicago neighborhood of Hyde Park and in the North Shore communities of Evanston, Wilmette, Winnetka and Glencoe. She also became a registered Music Together instructor, a program for early childhood music instruction and began specializing in piano instruction for beginners aged four to seven.

Melissa is currently a member for the Music Teacher’s National Association, the Iowa Music Teacher’s Association, the East Central Music Teachers Association, the National Flute Association and the Eastern Iowa Flute Association. Her new Iowa City studio, the Spruce Street Music Studio will open in September of 2006 and offer flute and piano lessons to students of all ages and abilities.