Melissa is a lyric mezzo-soprano based in London. She graduated with a master's with Distinction from Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance where she studied with Neil Baker and Kelvin Lim. Her studies were generously supported by the Charles Pope Memorial Trust. She previously studied Music at King’s College London, where she gained a place on the Advanced Performance Studies course and took singing lessons at the Royal Academy of Music. She was a choral scholar in the King's College London Chapel Choir.
Operatic roles include Cherubino in Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro, Dorabella in Così fan tutte, Le Prince Charmant in Massenet’s Cendrillon, Zweite Dame in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte and La Zelatrice in Puccini's Suor Angelica.
Melissa specialises in singing contemporary music and has performed contemporary opera roles including Danica in Ana Sokolović’s Svadba, Spirit of the Future in Thea Musgrave’s A Christmas Carol and Nurse in Tom Smail's Blue Electric. She covered the role of the singer in Penelope Sleeps, a contemporary theatre performance created by Mette Edvardsen and Matteo Fargion. Melissa particularly enjoys exploring unaccompanied contemporary song repertoire in recitals and creating modern improvisations on dramatic texts.
Melissa has performed as a soloist in oratorio works including Handel’s Messiah, Mozart's Requiem, Durufle's Requiem, Saint-Saens Oratorio de Noel, Vivaldi’s Gloria and Handel’s Israel in Egypt. She regularly performs in song recitals at London venues. Highlights include singing A Charm of Lullabies at the Wigmore Hall and performing works by Jonathan Dove to the composer himself in a recital at Blackheath Halls. Melissa has had the privilege to work with musicians such as Susan Bullock, Sophie Daneman, Joan Rodgers and Elaine Kidd in masterclasses.
Melissa is a German speaker and a qualified teacher of English as a Second Language.
