Melis László (1953–2018) was a violinist, composer, a member of Group 180, and was known for composing numerous theatre and film scores. In my dissertation I focus on his theatre music, particularly his collaborations with András Jeles. The following study is based on my presentation titled Beyond the canon – the art of László Melis, delivered at a theatre studies conference called Beyond the canon, held in Pécs on October 4–5, 2024. During my presentation, I relied exclusively on my notes and my PowerPoint slides, and had not prepared a written text in advance. Therefore, I have decided to use this paper to not only turn my notes and slides into written form, but also to incorporate my research results from the nearly half-year period since October.