Honoring the Masters. Sharing the Journey.

Melissa Treinkman

Contributor

Melissa Treinkman, DMA, is a singer and voice teacher based in Los Angeles. She is a professional opera singer and a passionate vocal technician. She is endlessly fascinated by vocal pedagogy and cherishes the opportunity that she has to help others experience vocal freedom. While she is highly dedicated to voice science and using an evidence-based teaching approach, she believes that exceptional singing instruction is, at its core, simple. William Butler Yeats said, “Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.” Melissa considers it her duty as a teacher to ignite her students’ excitement and inspire them to begin a lifelong journey of maximizing their vocal potential.

Resources by Melissa Treinkman

Education

Melissa received her Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Southern California, a Master of Music from DePaul University and a Bachelor of Music from Northwestern University. She won a fellowship to participate in the 2019 NATS Intern Program and is a graduate of the New York Vocal Coaching Teacher Training Program.

Performance

As a mezzo-soprano, Melissa has sung with opera companies throughout the US, including LA Opera, Sarasota Opera, Utah Opera, Opera North, Chicago Opera Theater, and Cedar Rapids Opera Theater. She can be heard as part of the Featured Ensemble on the GRAMMY award winning recording of The Ghosts of Versailles. Also with LA Opera, she has sung the role of the Vendor in Carmen, a Noble Page in Tannhäuser, and is a regular member of the LA Opera Chorus. A champion of new music, Melissa recently sang the role of El Ángel in a workshop performance of the newly commissioned opera by Carla Lucero, Las tres mujeres de Jerusalén. She also sang the role of Dulcinea in the world premiere of Juan Colomer’s opera Dulcinea XL with the LA Grand Ensemble.

Teaching

Melissa teaches voice to music theatre BFA majors at the University of Southern California. She also teaches classical voice majors at Loyola Marymount University. In addition, she maintains a private voice studio in Venice, California. Melissa is a member of the National Association of Teachers of Singing, The Voice Foundation, the American Guild of Musical Artists, the Musical Theatre Educators’ Alliance, and the Pan American Vocology Association.

Research/Publications/Presentations

Melissa’s scholarly articles have been published in the prestigious Journal of Singing and the Journal of Voice. She has presented her research on focus of attention and vocal fatigue at conferences given by the Voice Foundation, the National Association of Teachers of Singing, and the Pan American Vocology Association. Melissa was the 2020 recipient of the Voice Foundation’s Sataloff Award for Young Investigators and she was the first researcher to win the award in the category of vocal pedagogy.

Other Team Members

Theodora Ivanova Nestorova

Contributor
Bulgarian-British-American soprano, researcher, and teacher Theodora Ivanova Nestorova has most recently published as first author in the Journal of Voice, Journal of  Acoustical Society of America, and Journal of Singing. For her original work on vocal vibrato, Theodora has won the Best Poster Paper Award at the NATS National Conference, is a two-time  winner of the Best Student Presentation Award at the Pan American Vocology Association  (PAVA) Symposia, and received the First-Place Award from McGill University’s Research  Alive Series.

Fiona Currie

Contributor
Singing for as long as she can remember and teaching for over a decade, Fiona Currie trained in musical theatre and classical singing before graduating with a First Class Honours degree in Contemporary Music Performance and opening her vocal studio The Voice Diaries. Fiona focusses on vocal health and technique to ensure her singers have the right tools to enjoy longevity in their careers and continue to find joy through singing for many years to come.

Tiago Cruz

Contributor
Tiago Cruz is a professional singer and singing teacher with over 25 years of experience, initially performing in classical singing and more recently in popular singing. He holds a degree in Speech-Language Pathology and a voice specialist degree.