Biography
Melissa Shippen Burrows is a Juilliard educated professional Soprano, Vocal Instructor and Stage Presence Coach who works with singers internationally in all genres of music, from songwriters and country music artists in Nashville to Jazz, Broadway singers and classically-trained operatic artists requiring top-level technical conditioning and coaching in multiple languages. Melissa holds both Master and Bachelor of Music degrees in Vocal Performance from The Juilliard School in New York City and coaches in five languages. She enjoys training professional-level singers of all musical genres, organizing benefit concerts and continuing her singing while raising her children.
Melissa made operatic and symphonic debuts in her career throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia. After winning the top prize at the international Viotti Vokal Genial competition in Munich, the dramatic-lyric soprano was heard on Vesselina Kasarova’s recording release Belle Nuit which was played throughout Germany receiving critical acclaim. Her operatic roles have included: Micaela in Carmen, Massenet’s Thais, Mimi in La Bohème, Blanche de la Force in Poulenc’s Dialogues des Carmélites, among many others. Her symphonic performances highlight her as soprano soloist in Britten’s War Requiem, Mahler's Symphony No. 2 Resurrection, Beethoven’s 9th Symphony, Handel’s Messiah and Verdi‘s Requiem. Critics have described Melissa as: “a dramatic soprano with an attractive, powerful sound” (Britten War Requiem at Carnegie Hall, The New York Times) and as “angelic” while portraying Mimi (La Bohème with Wolf Trap, The Washington Post).
The soprano has received several honors. She was named Grand Prize winner of the Opera Birmingham competition, Di Panni Bel Canto competition (Rhode Island), the Orpheus competition (Tennessee) and was named a 2009 Metropolitan National Council Auditions District Winner and Mid-South Regional Finalist. She received the 2nd Prize (Junior Division) at the Palm Beach Opera Vocal Competition and was awarded a grant from the prestigious Giulio Gari Foundation in NYC. She sang in concert at the Kennedy Center for U.S. President Clinton after being named a United States Presidential Scholar in the Arts and National Foundation for the Advancement of the Arts Level 1 (Top Prize) winner at the age of 17.
As a member of The Juilliard Opera Center, she was heard as Marenka in the production of The Bartered Bride and as Lia in the New York stage premiere of Debussy’s L’enfant prodigue conducted by Yves Abel. She made her professional operatic debut at the age of 21 with the Palm Beach Opera Company as Antonia in Les Contes d’Hoffmann. After her time singing principal roles with the Juilliard Opera Center, Melissa moved to Berlin, Germany and appeared at the Deutsche Oper Berlin the following season as the First Lady in Die Zauberflöte, Nella in Gianni Schicchi (premiere), and Suor Genovieffa in Suor Angelica. She continued post-Master’s degree studies in Augsburg, Germany while singing operatic contracts.
Melissa enjoys song recitals and performed 'Vocal Honors Recitals' and 'Wednesdays at One' series performances through the auspices of Juilliard at Alice Tully Hall. She performed a French song concert with New York Festival of Song Artistic Director, Steven Blier at Wolf Trap. Melissa has also worked with master-teachers and artists Leontyne Price, Warren Jones, Brian Zeger, James Conlon, Evelyn Lear, Christine Brewer, Edith Wiens, Marlena Malas, Diane Richardson, Margo Garrett, among others, and through the auspices of the Marilyn Horne Foundation at Zankel Hall, Deborah Voigt and Renee Fleming. She’s eternally grateful for the opportunity to hone her craft with these incredible artists and loves pouring into the incredible artists in her private vocal studio.
-"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