BIO

Melanie is a soprano using song and dance both to reframe standard opera repertory through a female-driven lens, and to collaborate with living composers on new works that challenge systemic norms within classical music. In 2022, Melanie joins Mark Morris Dance Group as part of their Teaching Artist Training Program. Future projects also include a collaboration with composer Ashlee Busch and soprano Micaela Rebb as part of the Arizona Women's Collaborative, an organization dedicated to the creation of new art song repertoire by female-identifying artists.

In 2021, Melanie collaborated with multimedia artist Olivia Hernandez (professionally known as ONOH) as SEED Residency Artists with [nueBOX], a Phoenix-based organization providing resources to emerging artists. With support from [nueBOX] and composer/artist/activist Daniel Bernard Roumain, ONOH and Melanie created Don G, a reimagining of the Act II finale to Mozart’s Don Giovanni using voice, dance, electronics, and visual media, with all female identifying artists producing, creating, and performing all roles.

Recently, Melanie collaborated with pianist Karey Miles on a choreographed adaptation of Jake Heggie's Eve Song, sang Cleopatra in Giulio Cesare with Antigua y Moderna’s Young Artist Academy, and collaborated with the violin/guitar duo MeghanDiego through the Arts at Nativity Concert Series. She was an artist in the DBR Lab at Arizona State University, an interdisciplinary arts lab curated by Daniel Bernard Roumain and Jeff McMahon.

RESUME

C/V

REPERTOIRE

Melanie was a 2019 Emerging Artist with Opera in the Ozarks, singing Amy in Little Women, Blonde in The Abduction from the Seraglio, and covering Musetta in La Boheme. She was also a 2019 Opera in the Ozarks Outreach Artist, performing for schools and communities in a preseason tour throughout Northwest Arkansas. Melanie was a featured performer with the 2019 Oh My Ears/OME New Music Festival in Phoenix, premiering the song cycle Atypical Chronicles by composer Ashlee Busch. She was a 2018-2019 Molly Blank Fund ASU-Gammage Teaching Artist, where she developed her own artist residency based on the Kennedy Center’s arts integration method, and led Teaching Artist residencies at Red Mountain High School (Mesa, Arizona) and with the Scottsdale Arts Cultural Connections Program. In 2018, Melanie joined Arizona Opera as an Education Artist in Hansel and Gretel (Gretel), Opera 101: The Audition (Soprano), and as a featured soloist in Candide’s Musical Mayhem, a lecture recital hosted by Arizona Opera and Nina Bernstein Simmons.

Melanie has sung in multiple workshops and readings of new operas and musicals, most recently Silvia in Behold the Man (Paul Fowler/Andrew Flack), an operatic retelling of the botched Ecce Homo fresco internet meme sensation, with Arizona State University. Other new works credits include Lynn in The Halloween Tree (Theo Popov/Tony Asaro) in collaboration with Arizona State University and American Lyric Theater, Lillie in Babe (Andrea Jill Higgins/Carolyn Gage) at Arizona State University and the National Women’s Music Festival, and La Babette in Big Red Sun (Georgia Stitt/Jon Jiler) at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Additional performances include Owen Wingrave (Mrs. Julian) and The Magic Flute (Papagena) with Arizona State University, and The Gypsy Baron (Arsena), and Dido and Aeneas (Belinda) with the Mittelsächsisches Theater-Freiberg, Germany.

Melanie’s accolades include being an Arizona State Lyric Opera Theatre Guild Grant Recipient, an Encouragement Award Winner at the Metropolitan Opera District Auditions, and a Semi-Finalist in the Phoenix Opera Southwest Vocal Competition. Melanie holds degrees from Arizona State University (DMA/Voice & MM/Opera Performance), and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (BM/Voice with a Dance Minor), and studies with Stephanie Weiss.