A native of Plano, Texas, Melody Tang began her musical career on piano at age four and on guitar and percussion at age nine. Melody is currently pursuing a Bachelor of Percussion Performance at Southern Methodist University, and she aspires to perform as an orchestral percussionist and teach as professor of percussion one day.  She has studied with George Nickson, Brian Jones, Ed Smith, Drew Lang, Jamal Mohamed, John Bryant, Jon Lee, Steve McDonald, Rob Tovar, Sergio Paimes, and Michael Hernandez. Though she is classically trained, over the years, she has loved diving into other areas of music such as steel pan, theater percussion, contemporary music, competitive drumline, marching band, hand drumming, and jazz piano. 

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Melody is an active performer with the Meadows Percussion Ensemble, Meadows Symphony Orchestra, Meadows Wind Symphony, Meadows World Music Ensemble, Meadows Jazz Orchestra, and SYZYGY Contemporary Music Ensemble. Additionally, she is the co-founder and current member of the Midnight Trio, a Dallas-based chamber group. Over the past few years, Melody has performed at the Percussive Arts International Convention, Great Plains International Marimba Competition, Modern Snare Drum Competition, Petrichor International Music Competition, Texas Day of Percussion, Nief Norf Summer Festival, Ted Atkatz Percussion Seminar, Eastern Music Festival, and Sō Percussion Summer Institute. She has enjoyed performing with Poovalur Sriji, Stewart Copeland, Sō Percussion, and Bela Fleck in recent concerts.

 

Melody is proud to be a World Percussion Group Artist, where she toured Spain and Portugal in the 2024 season. An advocate for equity and inclusion in the concert percussion community, Melody is an Emerging Artist through The Network for Diversity in Concert Percussion (NDCP). In addition to performing, Melody is passionate about music education and teaches private lessons and provides coaching for percussion programs in Dallas. In her free time, Melody really enjoys reading, photography, hiking, catching amazing sunsets, spending time with friends and family, and giving back to the community.