Melanie Punter has been a member of Orchestra of St. Luke’s since 1979, where she has worked under such conductors as Sir Roger Norrington, Sir Charles Mackerras, Sir Andre Previn, Donald Runnicles, Pablo Heras-Casado and Bernard Labadie. She is a member of the Tallahassee Symphony Orchestra and served as principal bass from 1996-2019. As a free-lance musician, Ms Punter has performed in many orchestras including the American Symphony Orchestra, the Opera Orchestra of New York, Stanford Symphony, and at Radio City Music Hall. She has worked in Broadway pit orchestras including the Tony Award winning Mystery of Edwin Drood and with various ballet orchestras such as Dance Theater of Harlem, Joffrey Ballet, American Ballet Theater and Tallahassee Ballet. Ms Punter has been on many soundtracks and film scores including those of Spike Lee. She has recorded on several labels Centaur, Dorian, Telarc, Nonesuch, Deutsche Grammophon,to name a few.
Ms. Punter has performed in Japan and Europe and has performed with Colour of Music Black Classical Musicians Festival in Pittsburg, PA and Charleston, SC, at the Festival of Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, Festival of Two Worlds Spoleto, Italy, Suwannee Music Festival in Tennessee, Arcadia Music Festival in Maine, Caramoor Music Festival in NY. and the Victoria Bach Festival in Victoria, TX.,. She is active in several chamber music groups and performs with the Bach Society of Charleston, the Atlanta Baroque Orchestra and, the Tallahassee Bach Parley on period instruments.
She joined the Florida State University College of Music faculty in the Fall 1996; in July of 2019 she retired as Associate Professor of Double Bass. She led the Double Bass Workshop at Florida State University Summer Camps from 2001-2019 working with as many as 24 young players. She is a graduate of the High School of Music and Art in New York, where she studied with Homer Mensch, and at the Manhattan School of Music, where she studied with Alvin Brehm. She has been a member of the Juilliard MAP faculty, where she coached chamber and bass ensembles as well as taught double bass.
