Dr. Melissa Morales is a clarinetist and educator originally from the Greater New Orleans, and a recent graduate of the University of Maryland under the tutelage of professor Robert DiLutis. She served as the 2018-2019 artist in residence at Collington Continuing Care Retirement Community in Bowie, Maryland, and she has served as the clarinetist for the Washington D.C chamber music collective Potomac Winds since 2016. The Potomac Winds was the ensemble in residence in Talbot County for the 2017-2018 academic year, curated a concert series with Robert Harper Books in the fall of 2017, performed as part of the Riverdale Chamber Music Society, National Music Festival - Resonance Chamber Series, and was invited to perform at Forum Cultural Guanajuato in Leon City, Mexico. Morales currently serves as second clarinet with the Apollo Orchestra. She has performed at the Kennedy Center  in DC and Symphony Center in Chicago.