Melissa Tosh

Professor, Voice
Conservatory of Music

Photo of Melissa Tosh

Contact

Watchorn Hall
208
P: 909.748.8698
E: Melissa_Tosh@redlands.edu

Degrees

B.M., California State University, Sacramento
M.A., California State University, Sacramento
D.M.A., University of Oregon

Bio

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.

Courses Taught at Redlands

Applied Voice
Vocal Pedagogy
German, French and Italian Lyric Diction and Literature
Opera Workshop

Dr. Tosh is currently Chair of Vocal Studies.

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 

Awards and Honors

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

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.