Melanie Young is a university-trained harpist who began study of the harp with her first highly inspiring and influential harp teacher, Patricia Terry-Ross. At Cass Technical High School in Detroit, Michigan, Melanie received training in musical performance skills and was firmly grounded in the traditional harp technique of the Salzedo method of harp performance. While a student at Cass Tech High School, she performed as a harpist in the locally renowned and still quite vibrant Cass Tech Harp and Vocal Ensemble concert group, a female performing choral ensemble accompanied by three harpists, and she also performed in the Cass Tech Harp Ensemble. Formal classical music studies were continued at Michigan State University, where, in addition to academic applied harp studies of solo classical harp literature, music theory, aural harmony and music history studies, orchestral studies included performing in the Michigan State University symphony orchestra, the university opera company ensemble symphony orchestra, the university chorale and state singers symphony orchestra, the university symphony band, and the university concert band. Her additional harp instructors were Mary McNair, Evelyn Iverson, Lauralee Campbell, Sydney Payne Howell, and Mary Beckman.
Melanie performs primarily on a concert grand pedal harp, and also on a smaller French Celtic harp. She has over 20 years of musical experience freelancing for wedding ceremonies, wedding receptions, church services, holiday, special, and corporate events, and has performed in large and small orchestral and chamber ensembles in southern Illinois, Iowa, Oklahoma, North Carolina, northern Virginia, Maryland, and the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area.