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..Born and raised in England, Melanie, a vocalist, vocal coach/trainer and vocal performance coach, initially studied classical voice and took lessons for several years.
She has a strong belief that all serious minded singers should indeed improve their musicianship.
With a greater sense of musicianship, a singer is able to talk the talk and hold their own while in the midst of the 'instrumentalists'. This led Melanie to embarked on obtaining an Associate Degree in Applied Arts (Music) from the Barbados Community College with voice as her principle instrument. This Melanie did after completing several voice examinations with The Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music (London UK) having studied with local soprano Ms. Norma Bowen and Mr. Mikie Roberts.
Her natural vocal versatility enables her to sing such diverse genres as classical/legit, jazz, gospel, Negro spirituals, the blues, R&B, neo-soul and musical theater.
Known for her 'dark brown' and at times "torchy" voice, vocal range, stage performance, style and versatility and being faced with the question of "How do you do THAT?", over an over again, when people heard her sing, unable to fully explain because she lacked the necessary language and terminology, Melanie embarked on the study of Contemporary Commercial Voice,(non classical singing) and Vocal Pedagogy, first with an aim of discovering what it was that she was doing so she could translate the experience to others. After investigating a few techniques, one stood out because it made perfect sense...it was what she was doing but didn't know it! That's when she discovered the Speech Level Singing (TM) technique. She then launched into her own study of this technique
Melanie has recently studied with the vocal coach of choice of many Grammy Music Award winners, celebrity vocal coach Mr. Brett Manning of the Brett Manning Studio in Nashville Tennessee. She is presently completing her Associate Teachers Certificate qualifications
Being truly impressed with her voice Mr.Manning notes "what she was able to do naturally, indeed takes many of my students months and sometimes years to accomplish."
"That Brett Manning had me doing some things! including singing a G5 with the same ease as a C4 - all the while I'm thinking - wow, no stress no strain. At times I had to go to the keyboard and check for myself, just to make sure he wasn't pulling a fast one on me. Turns out that I showed him a little something too when it came to transitioning registers! (wink wink Brett)"
Melanie has also completed studies at The Singers Forum in Manhattan, where she studied The Art of Solo Performance and Speech and Accent Neutralization. In addition to this, she has studied Stage Performance and Solo Jazz Performance with long standing Broadway star and actress of the modern Days of Our Lives, Ms Vicki Stuart, also in Manhattan New York
As a freelance session background singer, Melanie has supplied harmonies for several local recording artists in local recording studios as well as providing live background vocals for contestants in The Barbados Song Contest, The Junior Monarch Tent and Finals, The Conga Line Music Festival and an Artist Show Case held in Trinidad, but to name a few.
In 2005 and 2006 she was invited to be on the panel of national music judges for NIFCA, a creativity competition hosted annually by the National Cultural Foundation of Barbados. In 2006 Melanie was the vocal performance coach for the contestants of a local televised talent contest, The Courts Cable & Wireless Talent Competition. Some of her most recent endeavors include the recording of local party political jingles, teaching/training of a local primary school choir and judging at the recently concluded Destinee Singing Competition. She is presently the vocal trainer/performance instructor for the annual Arts Camp hosted by the Errol Barrow Center of Creative Imagination of the University of the West Indies and the co-producer for a very popular Calypso 'Tent'
She has just recently starting singing as part of a duo on the hotel scene.
In addition, Melanie is also a partner of Omni Entertainment (www.omnientertainment.biz)
There are a few more training jobs that she has up her sleeve, but we can't talk about those until she gets it 'in writing' :-)
With over a 20 year love affair with the voice and singing, Melanie offers her services of vocal training and coaching, stage performance, musicianship for singers, administering and coaching for vocal auditions and assessments, finding your 'right' singing voice, eliminating register 'breaks', vocal confidence building, microphone technique, becoming studio ready, ear training, intonation issues (singing off key) elocution and more.
She works with both individuals in her private studio and with choirs and chorales on location.
"I find the voice to be totally fascinating, after all it is indeed the very first instrument. The voice can soothe and comfort, express grief, convey rejoicing and can have the ability to make the a listeners hair stand on end all by the way something is sung or said. WOW!, what an instrument!!. The satisfaction I get from watching someone's face light up after they accomplish something vocally, something that they previously. 'could not' do, is untold. :-)
I continue to study, read, learn and listen to a variety of vocal techniques concepts and training approaches, actually,I'm embarking on additional professional voice qualifications, formal education in voice studies, graded examinations and vocal pedagogy"
She is the CEO of her own company Vocal Image, a voice studio dedicated to “Developing Vocal Potentialâ€
Well we've certainly not heard the last from Melanie...stay tuned world!!
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