Matthew Melillo joined The Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra in 2025. He holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in bassoon performance from Northwestern University, where he studied with David McGill. Prior to his appointment in Milwaukee, Matthew was the contrabassoonist of The Florida Orchestra. He has performed with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, as well as playing in Switzerland and Germany as a member of the Lucerne Festival Contemporary Orchestra, and in Colorado with the National Repertory Orchestra.

Matthew grew up in New Jersey, and has been performing in orchestras since the age of 11. He credits much of his early musical growth to the New Jersey Youth Symphony, Interlochen Center for the Arts, Boston University Tanglewood Institute, and Juilliard Pre-College, where he was a student of Marc Goldberg.

While studying at Northwestern, he specialized in the contrabassoon, and it quickly became a passion. He is an early adopter of the Kronwalt, a largely redesigned contrabassoon and the result of a collaboration between German instrument makers Guntram Wolf and Rudolf Walter. Matthew is committed to bassoon and contrabassoon pedagogy, and enjoys sharing his knowledge of both instruments. He teaches at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and has taught masterclasses at the University of Miami and the University of Central Florida.

In addition to bassoon and contrabassoon, Matthew also plays the piano, harpsichord, accordion, and hurdy-gurdy. Always looking to learn new skills, his dream instruments include the theorbo and heckelphone. When not making music or reeds, Matthew enjoys woodworking, cooking, breadmaking, sewing, leatherworking, painting miniatures, and 3D printing and modeling. He also has modest collections of watches and fountain pens. Most of all, he loves to spend time with his wife Allie and their cat Milo.