Teacher

Using empathy, humor, physiology and imagery, Melyssa delights in sharing her great enthusiasm for singing with students of all ages and genres. She specializes in communicating high-level technical concepts with enthusiasm and humor, helping students develop a bulletproof vocal technique, and developing each singer into an interpretive artist.

Melyssa opened her private voice studio in Seattle in 1992. She was subsequently hired as adjunct faculty with Seattle Central, South Seattle, Bellevue and Shoreline Community Colleges, and as primary voice faculty at the Music Center of the Northwest. In 2008, Melyssa moved to the Midwest and opened a private studio in Prescott, WI; she was then hired as voice faculty at Blessings Academy of Art and Music in Hastings, MN, and has since become a Nationally Certified Teacher of Music.

Melyssa's former students are currently performing on opera stages, as musical theater soloists, as paid choristers, and as lead singers in bands of all genres; some of them are voice teachers themselves; and 95% of her long-term high school students who applied for college vocal music scholarships received them. Melyssa also adjudicates, coaches acting, directs, and teaches master classes for music organizations, high schools and private studios.

As a performer, soprano Melyssa Rice has performed opera roles, opera/oratorio solos in concert, and art song recitals in a variety of settings. Companies include Seattle Opera (AGMA chorus); Puget Sound Opera, Kitsap Opera, and Seattle Comic Opera (opera roles); the Minnesota Sinfonia and Hildman String Orchestra (solos with orchestra); New Savoy Opera (chorus); and Cornish College of the Arts (guest artist), where she premiered the role of Tituba in the opera Gallows Hill. Melyssa has also created/performed six solo recitals, and sang in over twenty shared concerts in Minnesota, Washington and Alaska. She is currently a soloist with Thursday Musical and First Presbyterian of Hastings (performing live on KDWA Radio weekly). A graduate of St. Olaf College, Melyssa is a lifelong learner who has studied with teachers Janis Hardy, Larry Weller, Erich Parce, Awilda Verdejo, Thomasa Eckert and David Jones.