Education

Biography

Canadian Mezzo Soprano, Melissa Davis is an active concert soloist, vocal professor, choral director and vocal clinician.

Awarded the distinguished Krannert Debut Artist Award by the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, Illinois, Davis has guest soloed with Grammy and Juno-award-winning choirs and orchestras throughout North America including the Buffalo Philharmonic and Thunder Bay Symphony orchestras.

A dynamic concert soloist, she has played principal roles in various concert and opera productions throughout Canada, the United States, France, the UK and the Caribbean. As the Canadian premiering artist of Peter Ashbourne’s Jamaican classical art song cycle, “Fi Mi Love Have Lion Heart,” Davis released her live solo debut album, City Called Heaven: An Evening of Songs and Spirituals, including the cycle in 2015.

Davis has served as vocal director for prominent theatre productions, vocal masterclass clinician and guest lecturer for numerous national and international conferences.

With a DMA in Vocal Performance and Literature from the University of Illinois, an alumna of York University (BFA, Honours, Vocal Performance), she returns to York U as the newly appointed Assistant Professor of Vocal Performance.