Marie-Aude MELLIÈS
Violonist

Marie-Aude received a grant to help her to purchase his viola.

What is your artistic background?
I was born in April 2004 in Paris. I started playing the violin at age 3 after seeing and loving a documentary about David Oistrakh. I first studied with Hratchia Haroutunian, a former student of Leonid Kogan at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory and then with Florin Szigeti at the Paris Regional Conservatory. I enrolled at the Paris National Conservatory of Music and Dance, in 2020, where I studied with Olivier Charlier and later in chamber music with Claire Désert and Jean Sulem. After earning my master’s degree in violin there, I’m continuing my studies in the Artist-Performer Program (DAI), a great program that allows you to study with any professor at the Conservatory you choose! This very flexible program allows me to balance my studies with my concert performances, especially as a soloist or in a duo, notably with pianist Itamar Golan, with whom I’ll release my first album, À Paris, on the Mirare label in the first half of 2027!

How do you see your profession today ?
I was very young when I started playing the violin; I didn’t really know what being a violinist entailed. There are no musicians in my family so I discovered that world fairly late. For me, what mattered most was the joy of playing and sharing the music I loved. As I grew up, I came to realize more concretely the impact we, musicians, can have on our listeners. It was quite natural for me to gravitate toward this profession.
Today, I see this career primarily as an opportunity to pass on, share, and create moments with others. It’s a career requires a lot of hard work and dedication but it also gives me great freedom of expression and the chance to keep learning throughout my life.

How do you see yourself in 5 years ? in 10 years ?
Most of my most memorable experiences have happened unexpectedly; I don’t even know what will happen this year, let alone in 5 or 10 years!
All I can imagine, then, is that I’ll keep playing, for myself and for the audience, with just as much joy as ever, spending time with friends and artists who inspire me, and that I’ll always have this desire to express myself through music.

Interview conducted in 2026
Photographs taken in 2026 by Yama Ndiaye