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Consultant in Woodwind Studies, Tutor in Oboe

Melinda read music at York University and studied in Germany with Ingo Goritzki and Helmut Winschermann. She has performed as a soloist at many festivals including Edinburgh and Aldeburgh and abroad at the Holland and Aarhus Festivals. Pieces written especially for Melinda include those by Simon Bainbridge, Sir Harrison Birtwistle, Simon Holt and Nicholas Maw. She is also a composer, among her pieces are Pibroch for solo oboe, various ensemble pieces with strings and a new work for double reed ensemble Crane Dance for the RNCM Woodwind Day in October 2008. Melinda’s most recent solo CD Melinda Maxwell in Manchester: Music for Oboe from the RNCM was released on Dutton Recordings in 2006 and was CD of the month for BBC Music magazine. Her latest solo CD will feature the first recording for Oboe Classics of Birtwistle's 26 Orpheus Elegies and his arrangement of Three Bach Arias to be released in 2009.

She is principal oboe of the Endymion Ensemble and the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group and also performs regularly as principal with the London Sinfonietta, the Hilliard Ensemble and for film sessions with the London Metropolitan Orchestra. She has taught at the Royal Academy of Music and Trinity College London and has been giving master-classes at the Dartington International Summer School since 1992. She also coaches at the Britten-Pears and NYO summer courses.

In 2007 Melinda went to Uganda as part of a four person London Sinfonietta team to discover the sounds of ancient rock gongs on the island of Lolui in Lake Victoria. The composer Nigel Osbourne who also took part is writing a new solo work for her and her two colleagues and five Ugandan musicians, to be premiered at the opening of the new King's Place Concert Hall in London October 2008.