Laura Melnicoff is a cellist based in Albany, NY.

Passionate about chamber music, Laura is a Musician-Owner with Groupmuse, producing and performing concerts in homes and venues around New York State. She frequently performs locally with Duo Envol, her ensemble with flutist Melanie Chirignan. Her avid interest in Jewish music has been supported by the New York State Council for the Arts, with grants in 2024 and 2025 for Folk Arts projects on klezmer music. Laura leads music workshops and performances in Jewish community settings playing chassidic songs she learned at women’s yeshivas in Jerusalem and Brooklyn. Recordings of her performances have aired on WQXR, WMHT-PBS, NPR, and Israel’s Kol HaMusika. Laura was also a  recipient of the Arts Council of the Capital Region Artist Grant in 2023 for her solo cello debut album, “Bars of Light,” which can be found on all streaming platforms. She has been a resident artist at the Catwalk Institute and the Looking Glass Arts Neighborhood Recording Residency.

Her performances on major stages have included the Troy Savings Bank Music Hall, Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, the Music Hall of Williamsburg, Frankfurt Alte Oper, Heichal HaTarbut Tel Aviv, and the Summer Stage of the Central Park of Kyiv, Ukraine. Laura has performed frequently in the orchestra of the National Yiddish Theater Folksbiene, including the originating production of Fiddler on the Roof in Yiddish at Stage 42 in New York City. Holding music performance degrees from the Mannes College of Music and Tel Aviv University, Laura’s primary studies have been with Yehuda Hanani, Timothy Eddy, and Hillel Zori.

Laura is pleased to perform on a custom commissioned cello from 2024, built by Saratoga-based luthiers Thomas Dunn and Nicholas Frirsz. 

A Manhattan native, Laura’s love of cello started at age 6, when she began taking lessons. She was part of the pilot class at Special Music School and attended LaGuardia Arts High School. She holds a Bachelor’s of Music from The Mannes School of Music, where she was a student of Timothy Eddy. Her Master’s degree took her to Israel, where she studied with Hillel Zori, was a member of Tel Aviv University’s resident string quartet, and interned as a cellist in the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. 

Music festivals include the Close Encounters With Music Series, the High Peaks Music Festival, Aspen Music Festival, Keshet Eilon, Kyiv Summer Music Evenings, the Madrid Cello Forum, Your Body Is Your Strad, SababaFest, KlezKanada, and Yiddish New York.