Recognized as one of North America's leading performers on recorder and historical flutes, Toronto-born Alison Melville began playing the recorder in a school classroom in London (UK). She plays medieval, renaissance, baroque and modern recorders; renaissance, baroque and classical flutes and one-keyed piccolo; and Norwegian seljefløyte.

A member of the Toronto Consort and Ensemble Polaris, Alison Melville appears regularly as a soloist and orchestral player with the Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra; she can be heard on their JUNO Award-winning recordings of Bach's Brandenburg Concertos and orchestral music of Jean-Philippe Rameau, and on numerous other Tafelmusik recordings on Sony, Analekta and CBC Records.

In frequent demand as a guest performer with other chamber ensembles, orchestras and festivals across North America, she has played on over forty CDs, including four critically acclaimed solo recordings. Alison's playing has been heard on numerous radio stations including the CBC, BBC, NPR, Radio New Zealand and the Iceland State Broadcast Service, on the soundtracks of films by Atom Egoyan, Ang Lee and Amnon Buchbinder, and for several years she was a fixture on CBC-TV's The Friendly Giant.

Alison Melville teaches at the Oberlin College Conservatory of Music (Oberlin, Ohio) and at the University of Toronto's Faculty of Music.