MELISSA FONTAINE, SOPRANO

 Active as a recitalist on three continents, commended for her delivery of text with “literary insight” and “firm, radiant tone,” soprano Melissa Fontaine made her European debut at Teatro Centro Giovanile in Bassano del Grappa, Italy, and in 2009 debuted in the Republic of Korea with a series of concerts in Seoul. She made several concert tours of Germany with the United States Army-Europe Band, about which the Eppelheimer Zeitung wrote, “Melissa Fontaine has a fantastic soprano voice,” and the Rhein-Neckar Zeitung praised her “great performance.” 2006 included solo recitals in Germany, Hungary, the Czech Republic, the Netherlands, England, and* France. Of her debut at the Atlanta Symphony's concert performance of Act III of Wagner's Die Walküre, with Donald Runnicles conducting and James Morris as Wotan, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution praised, "Melissa Fontaine, as Gerhilde, …stood out for the strength of [her] voice and graceful phrasing." Other operatic roles include Cio-Cio San in Madama Butterfly, Mimì in La bohème, Gretel in Hansel and Gretel, Magda in La rondine, Lauretta in Gianni Schicchi, Zerlina in Don Giovanni, and Mary Warren in Robert Ward's opera The Crucible. As an oratorio soloist, she has performed Mendelssohn’s Elijah, Handel’s Messiah, Mahler’s Symphony No. 8, Haydn’s Creation, Bach's B minor Mass, and the Requiems of Mozart, Fauré and Verdi. She has made Compact Disc recordings of Mozart’s "Coronation" Mass and Mendelssohn’s Hymn of Praise. Miss Fontaine may also be heard on Promised Land and A Christmas Alleluia, produced by Tower Hill Recordings. She soloed in 2001 with the Army Ground Forces Band at Atlanta's World Congress Center. She was their featured soloist again in the 2002 Independence Day celebration, which drew a crowd of 50,000 people and was broadcast by CBS Television.

Miss Fontaine's Bachelor of Music degree from Converse College was followed by private study in Italy with Pier Miranda Ferraro and a master's in voice performance from Georgia State University. Her teachers and coaches include Irene Harrower, Walter Huff, and Peter Harrower in Atlanta, Janet Bookspan and Dodi Protero in New York, and Michael Klubertanz in Heidelberg. At the Internationalen Sommerakademie of the Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria, she studied with Gérard Souzay and Elisabeth Schwarzkopf and was also heard in concert during the Salzburg Music Festival. She was a 1998 finalist of the National Association of Teachers of Singing Artist Awards.

Miss Fontaine has conducted choral works such as Schubert’s Mass in G, Handel’s Judas Maccabeaus, Britten’s Ceremony of Carols, Bach’s Christmas Oratorio, and Vivaldi’s Gloria. She is the director of Temple Emanu-El’s (Sandy Springs, Georgia) High Holy Days choirs.

A passionate teacher, Miss Fontaine has maintained a private voice studio in her home, living in Atlanta, Heidelberg, Germany, and Tacoma, Washington, since 1985. She has served on the voice faculties of Agnes Scott College and Columbus State University.