Violaine Melançon is the founding violinist of the Naumburg Award-winning Peabody Trio, which has established itself as one of the leading piano trios in the world. Equally committed to the classics of the repertoire and to important new works, the Peabody Trio brings to their music making what the Washington Post calls "the romantic fervor of the 20th century greats." Since its 1990 New York debut at Alice Tully Hall, the Peabody Trio has performed in the most important chamber music series in New York, Washington, DC, Chicago, Denver, Vancouver, Montreal, Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego, Boston and Philadelphia. Internationally, they tour frequently in England, making repeat appearances at London's Wigmore Hall, and in Japan and Israel.

After receiving First Prize in violin at the Conservatoire de Musique du Quèbec, Violaine Melançon continued her studies with Ivan Galamian at the Curtis Institute of Music and with Isadore Tinkleman at the San Francisco Conservatory. While at Curtis, she was a member of the Nisaika Quartet, a prize winner in the 8th International String Quartet Competition in Evian, France. Ms. Melançon is also the recipient of many awards for solo performance including the 1984 Prix d'Europe and the USIA Artistic Ambassadors Award. She serves on the violin and chamber music faculties of Peabody Conservatory.

Noted as a "poetic violist," (New Yorker) Lawrence Dutton has earned distinction as a recitalist, soloist with orchestra, chamber musician, recording artist and teacher of viola and chamber music. As violist of the world renowned Emerson String Quartet, Mr. Dutton performs over 100 concerts each season and has won six Grammy Awards, most recently in 2001 for "Best Classical Album" and "Best Chamber Music Performance" of the complete string quartets of Shostakovich on the Deutsche Grammophon label. The Emerson Quartet continues to be the only chamber music ensemble to ever win “Best Classical Album”, (also for the complete Bartok string quartets in 1990). The Emerson String Quartet recently won Gramophone Magazine's award for Best Chamber Music Performance for the Shostakovich set. They also won a “Best Chamber Music Performance” Grammy in 1994 for Ives, Barber and in 1998 for their complete Beethoven Quartets and continue to be exclusive recording artists for Deutsche Grammophon.

Mr. Dutton has collaborated with many of the world's great performing artists, including Isaac Stern, Mstislav Rostropovich, Oscar Shumsky, Walter Trampler, Menahem Pressler, Lynn Harrell, Yefim Bronfman, Joseph Kalichstein, Misha Dichter, Jan DeGaetani and Edgar Meyer among others. In addition, he has performed as guest artist with numerous chamber music ensembles such as the Juilliard and Guarneri quartets, and with the Beaux Arts and the Kalichstein, Laredo, Robinson trios. With the Beaux Arts trio he recorded the Shostakovich Piano Quintet, Op. 57, and the Fauré G minor Piano Quartet, Op. 45, on the Philips label. His Aspen Music Festival recording with Jan DeGaetani for Bridge records was nominated for a 1992 Grammy Award. For BRAVO television he recorded works by Stravinsky and Hindemith.

As a soloist, Mr. Dutton has appeared with many American and European orchestras including those of Germany, Belgium, New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Colorado, and Virginia, among others. He has also appeared as guest artist at the music festivals of Aspen, Santa Fe, Ravinia and Chamber Music Northwest, and has collaborated with the late Isaac Stern in the International Chamber Music Encounters at both Carnegie Hall and in Jerusalem.

Lawrence Dutton began violin and viola studies with Margaret Pardee and continued with Francis Tursi at the Eastman School, when he began playing viola exclusively. He earned his Bachelors and Masters degrees at the Juilliard School, where he studied with Lillian Fuchs. While at Juilliard, Mr. Dutton was awarded the Walter M. Naumberg Scholarship.

In May 1995, he and other members of the Emerson String Quartet were awarded honorary doctorates from Middlebury College in Vermont. Mr. Dutton is currently a Professor of Chamber Music at the State University of New York at Stony Brook.

Cellist Timothy Eddy has earned distinction as a recitalist, soloist with orchestra, chamber musician, recording artist, and teacher of cello and chamber music. He has performed with numerous symphonies including Dallas, Colorado, Jacksonville, North Carolina and Stamford, and has appeared at the Mostly Mozart, Ravinia, Aspen, Santa Fe, Marlboro, Lockenhaus, Spoleto and Sarasota music festivals. He has won prizes in numerous national and international competitions, including the 1975 Gaspar Cassado International Violoncello Competition in Italy.

Mr. Eddy is currently Professor of Cello at the Juilliard School and New York's Mannes College of Music, and he was frequently a faculty member at the Isaac Stern Chamber Music Workshops at Carnegie Hall. A former member of the Galimir Quartet, the New York Philomusica and the Bach Aria Group, he collaborates regularly in recital with pianist Gilbert Kalish. He has recorded a wide range of repertoire from Baroque to avant-garde for the Angel, Arabesque, Columbia, CRI, Delos, Musical Heritage, New World, Nonesuch, Vanguard, Vox, and Sony Classical labels.

Pianist, composer and music educator Jeffrey Sharkey became director of the Peabody Institute in 2006. Before coming to Peabody he was dean of the Cleveland Institute of Music for five years, prior to which he was director of music at the Purcell School in London and head of composition and academic music at Wells Cathedral School, also in England. Sharkey was a founding member of the Pirasti Piano Trio, which recorded with ASV Records in the United Kingdom and toured throughout Europe and the United States. Since returning to America, he has played in Trio Zannetti and performed regularly with members of the Cleveland Orchestra and Cleveland Institute faculty. His compositions have been performed by the St. Louis Symphony under the direction of Leonard Slatkin, and in chamber concerts in the United States and Britain. Sharkey is a graduate of the Manhattan School of Music. He earned a master of music degree in composition from Yale University and a master of philosophy from Cambridge University. His teachers have included pianists John Browning, Boris Berman and Peter Frankl and composers Aaron Copland and John Corigliano.