Teaching
Soprano, Vocal Instructor, and Stage Presence Coach, Melissa Shippen Burrows, has a great passion for helping dedicated, competitive singers to establish a solid vocal technique in order to discover full vocal potential! Her vocal and dramatic training along with language diction coaching abilities were developed while attaining both her Bachelor and Master of Music degrees in Vocal Performance at The Juilliard School, the world leader of performing arts education. Mrs. Burrows experience spans over 25 years including performing principal operatic roles onstage in the United States and Germany, concertizing as soprano soloist with symphonic orchestras and teaching singers who have garnered many prestigious accolades. She confidently establishes and maintains breath support, proper body alignment, release of muscular tension (which inhibits vocal production), coaching diction in five languages, exploring character development with audience connection and imparting stage presence tools. Melissa prepares singers for all styles of music: operatic, Broadway, jazz, country music, gospel and song-writing. She loves optimizing commercial-style shows for tours, as well as offering full operatic role studies. If interested in consulting with her regarding working together in the Nashville, Tennessee area (in-person or virtually), please contact Melissa for details at mkshippen@aol.com.
Successes and upcoming engagements of singers in the vocal studio of Melissa Shippen Burrows:
- Grand Ole Opry Debut
- Ryman Auditorium Concerts
- Internationally televised broadcasts of concerts
- European and U.S. contracts for opera singer
- solo tour offerings for both country music and classical summer festivals
- professional recording contract offerings
- casting in lead and supporting roles in Broadway and operatic productions
- full scholarship awards at competitive music colleges, including admissions into doctoral level programs for vocal studies
- national and local vocal competition wins and awards
- Attaining teaching positions at the collegiate level
-"Soprano Melissa Shippen and tenor Matthew Garrett are the appealing and lyrical romantic leads, Marenka, the bride, and Jenik, the ostensible barterer. Shippen’s heroine is aptly feisty when crossed, but delighted to pull the wool over the eyes of silly Vasek (Jeremy Little). She has a strong enough instrument to carry off this spinto part, complete with dramatic, disillusioned aria, “How dark the day” (“Ten lásky sen”). The three soprano-tenor collaborations, Shippen’s early love duet and later angry, fiercely Slavic exchange with Garrett’s Jenik and the comic encounter with his half-brother and putative rival, Little’s Vasek, are among the performance’s highlights." ~ Theaterscene.net 2005, Bruce Michael-Gelbert