An experienced orchestral musician, Dr. Melissa Kritzer joined the Binghamton Philharmonic as Second Bassoon in 2013.  Within the New York City area, Melissa has performed with the Hartford Symphony Orchestra, the Albany Symphony Orchestra, the United States Coast Guard Band, and the Long Island Philharmonic. 

Melissa has also performed extensively with orchestras throughout the United States, including the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Columbus Symphony, and the Dayton Philharmonic.  She has held positions with many orchestras, including principal positions with the Kentucky Symphony Orchestra and the Cincinnati Baroque, and second bassoon positions with symphony orchestras in Ann Arbor and Lansing, Michigan.  As a soloist, Melissa has performed with the Cincinnati College-Conservatory Chamber Players, the Michigan State Philharmonic and twice with the Chelsea Symphony.

In addition to her orchestral and solo playing, Melissa has collaborated with other musicians on a broad range of chamber music projects.  Melissa has pursued her interest in historically informed baroque and renaissance performance as a member of Kammermusiker, an internationally acclaimed double reed ensemble.  For the past year, Melissa has been a part of an innovative project with the chamber ensemble Reeds Amis to bring the previously unpublished reed trios of composer Fernande Decruck to light, through transcribing manuscripts into notation and recording a CD of the works. 

Dr. Kritzer has been selected to perform at the International Double Reed Society Conference three times.  In 2014, Melissa performed a chamber recital, and in July 2012, she presented her research on Carl Maria von Weber’s Andante e Rondo Ungarese in a lecture recital.  Most recently, Melissa was selected to present a program of Decruck’s lost reed trios at the society’s 2015 convention in Tokyo, Japan.