Monique Mead

Teaching Professor
Chair, Music Education, Entrepreneurship, and Musicianship Division
Director of Music Entrepreneurship

Bio

As Director of Music Entrepreneurship at Carnegie Mellon School of Music, Monique Mead helps students prepare for professional life and create innovative career paths in music. Her curriculum is practical in nature, providing students with the skills, tools, and real-life experiences they need to succeed as professional musicians. Monique Mead's own rich and varied career is a testament to her enduring belief that music has the power to connect, heal, and uplift humanity. Whether performing concertos, engaging young audiences, or fostering wellbeing, Mead strives to create transformative musical experiences that connect people more deeply with themselves and others.

Inspired and mentored by Leonard Bernstein, Mead has been a lifelong activist for classical music as a violinist, educator and innovator. Since 1998, she has appeared regularly on German television and radio featuring her innovative youth concerts with prestigious German orchestras in Berlin, Munich, and Cologne. In the U.S. she has collaborated with the Pittsburgh Symphony, San Diego Symphony, Mainly Mozart, Orcas Island, and Rockport Festival, among others.  

In addition to performing as a soloist and chamber musician, Mead currently serves as Artistic Director of the Rancho La Puerta Chamber Music Festival in Mexico. Emerita positions include Board Chair of Chamber Music Pittsburgh, Executive Director of Olympic Strings Camp; and Artistic Director of Azure Family Concerts Pittsburgh.  

Passionate about community health and wellbeing, Mead and her college-aged children run an annual summer porch concert series, started in 2020. She also maintains a Sound Healing studio at the Awareness & Wellness Center in Pittsburgh where she offers therapeutic sound experiences and trains sound practitioners in evidence-based protocols.  Outside of music, she is a lover of nature, poetry, yoga, and homegrown cuisine.