[2] Watras attended Indiana University, where she studied with Abraham Skernick and Atar Arad, earning bachelor's and master's degrees and the prestigious Performer's Certificate.
[3] Composers that have written works especially for Watras include: Alessandra Barrett, Charles Corey, Brent Michael Davids, Joël-François Durand, Orlando Jacinta García, Richard Karpen, Garth Knox, Leilehua Lanzilotti, Shih-Wei Lo, Sandesh Nagaraj, Juan Pampin, Joshua Parmenter, Shulamit Ran, Jonathan Rodriquez Grijalva, Kathryn Sullivan, Heinrich Taube, Breana Tavaglione, Diane Thome, Cuong Vu, Andrew Waggoner, Anna Weesner, Frances White and Wei Yang.
[3] As a soloist and chamber musician, Watras has given world premieres of works by Atar Arad, Charles Corey, John Corigliano, Brent Michael Davids, Tina Davidson, Alexander De Varon, Joël-François Durand, Orlando Jacinta García, Jesse Jones, Richard Karpen, Garth Knox, Michael Jinsoo Lim, Shih-Wei Lo, Patrick Long, Eric Maestri, Anthony Moore, Jeffrey Mumford, Sandesh Nagaraj, Ichiro Nodaira, Juan Pampin, Joshua Parmenter, Robert Pound, Shulamit Ran, Jonathan Rodgriguez Grijalva, Adam Silverman, Kathryn Sullivan, Sir John Taverner, Heinrich Taube, Breana Tavaglione, Diane Thome, Dan Visconti, Cuong Vu, Andrew Waggoner, Melia Watras, Anna Weesner, Frances White, Theodore Wiprud, Tamar Witkin, Wei Yang and Mischa Zupko.
For twenty years, Watras concertized worldwide and recorded extensively as violist of the renowned Corigliano Quartet, which she co-founded.
[3] Watras’s compositions have been performed in US cities such as New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Seattle, Bloomington (IN), and countries including Denmark, Spain, Switzerland, and Wales.
Watras serves as Professor of Viola and Chair of Strings at the University of Washington, where she holds the Ruth Sutton Waters Endowed Professorship, and was awarded the Royalty Research Fund.