Michelle Pellay-Walker, a native Memphian, is currently Assistant Principal Violist of the Memphis Symphony Orchestra and violist with the Bluff City String Quartet.  Other positions she has held include Principal Violist of the Missouri Chamber Orchestra and Principal Violist of the Tennessee Summer Symphony.  She has also served as Acting Principal Violist of the Savannah Symphony Orchestra, and during the 1993-1995 seasons served as Acting Principal Violist of the Memphis Symphony Orchestra. A six-year alumna of the Memphis Youth Symphony Orchestra, she also spent eight summers at Sewanee Summer Music Center, where she studied viola with Marcia Ferrito, David Becker, Colin Kitching, and Ruth Morrow. She is a graduate of Southwestern at Memphis (BM 1980), where she studied viola and chamber music with John Wehlan.  At the University of Illinois (MM 1983), she continued her viola studies with Guillermo Perich.  Her chamber music coaches at UofI included Anne Epperson, Ian Hobson, and Catherine Tait. She has appeared as featured soloist with the Tennessee Summer Symphony, the Baroque and Classical Chamber Orchestra of Memphis, the Dyersburg Community Orchestra, and the Camerata String Ensemble of Jackson, Tennessee.

During the spring of 2005 Ms. Walker traveled to Washington, D.C. with the Combined Choirs of Calvary Episcopal Church to participate as singer and viola soloist in their Tennessee Day performance at Washington National Cathedral. During the spring of 2006 she presented a full- length recital featuring the works of 20th and 21st century English composers. This spring (2008), she plans to present a recital honoring the 175th anniversary of the birth of Johannes Brahms.

During the summer of 1992, Ms. Walker taught viola at Memphis State University, and for 2 1/2 years during the mid-90s, she taught beginning violin as a member of the Saint Mary's, Manassas, Alabama Redevelopment Team, a neighborhood reclamation project sponsored by Saint Marys Episcopal Cathedral. For the last ten years, she has taught Music Appreciation at Southwest Tennessee Community College, where she serves as an adjunct instructor. She has also taught at Mid-South Community College and at the University of Memphis (Music Appreciation, Basic Music Theory, and College Survival Skills).