Melissa Tosh

Melissa Tosh joined the faculty of the University of Redlands Conservatory of Music in 1999. She serves as chair of the vocal department and has taught courses in Voice, Opera Workshop, Vocal Pedagogy, Lyric Diction, Independent Studies, First-Year Seminars and Graduate Seminars.

Melissa has sung over thirty-five roles in opera, operetta, oratorio and musical comedy, in extended contracts with the Stadttheater Hildesheim, the Heidelberg Summer Castle Festival, and in her home state of California. She has also performed in Italy, Belgium, and Switzerland.

After a decade of living and working in Europe, Melissa returned to the States to complete her doctoral studies, and then began her second career as a university professor of music. She also enjoys adjudicating and composing. Her song cycle for flute and voice, O Blissful Loss of Self, based on ancient poetry of Chinese Buddhist Nuns, premiered in 2021 for the “She/We Can – Beyond the Woman’s Suffrage Centennial”, performed by Anima Vox.

Additional song cycles include Lover’s in the Wind - poems by Gary Amdahl, On Her Way - poems by Edna St. Vincent Millay, Never Told – poems by Louise Chandler Moulton, and Mark Twain: For Me and Mine. Her choral pieces include Solitary Highland Lass, My Soul Arose, Love in Wintertime, and Miraculous Universe.

• B.M., California State University, Sacramento

• M.A., California State University, Sacramento

• D.M.A., University of Oregon

• Composition Award and Premiere 2021 for She/We Can – Beyond the Women’s Suffrage Centennial
• Emerging Women Composers Award, Twin Cities Women's Choir, 2011
• Longfellow Chorus: First Prize for Solo Vocal Art Song composition, 2007
• Bel Canto Award, Belgium International Competition, 1986
• Finalist San Francisco Auditions, 1982
• Finalist Orange County Met Auditions 
• Gladys Turk Foundation Grant
• Mobile Oil Grant
• Civitan Special Olympics Fund Raising Award
• NATS Los Angeles Chapter
• Orange County Philharmonic Society

Special Performances

• Theater der Stadt Heidelberg Schloss Spiele, 1988-1991 Stadttheater Hildesheim, 1983-1987
• Guestings in Hagen, Peine, Giessen, Braunschweig, Wolfburg; Freelance tour in Germany and Switzerland, 1984-1991 

Rigoletto Performance Video

• Verdi's "Rigoletto" duet, performed with Gerald Dolter, from Rigoletto and Gilda, in Ghent, Belgium 1986.

• "Caro Nome", from Rigoletto and Gilda, in Ghent, Belgium 1986.