Wednesday, December 5, 2012

Do you select the music you sing or does the repertoire select you? Successful young singer stories and repertoire selection. With Whom Do You Identify? Part 4 – Melissa Rivera, Musical Theatre Cross-Over


Do you select the music you sing or does the repertoire select you?  Successful young singer stories and repertoire selection.  With Whom Do You Identify?  Part 4 – Melissa Rivera

Melissa Rivera is a classically trained singer who has successfully transitioned into musical theatre.  As a student pursuing a master of music degree in opera/musical theatre performance, Melissa has always sung in choirs, been in musical productions, and sung pop tunes for fun.  Melissa admits that she never really intended to be a classical singer, but chose to study voice because she knew she wanted to sing.  When she heard about auditions at a local community theater, she asked her voice teacher to help her prepare for the audition.  In preparing, they realized that she had a strong belt voice and a lot of potential.  At that point, she knew that musical theatre was her niche- she received a callback for a leading role and was cast in both The Sound of Music and My Fair Lady.   www.classicalsinger.com November 2012. 

Melissa Rivera made the transition to Musical Theatre with luck and hard work.  Shortly after receiving her Bachelor’s she found success working at the professional and community theatre levels and won first place in the musical theatre division at the NATS Mid-Atlantic Regionals.  Melissa states, ‘my voice took to musical theatre very well once I began to understand the differences between operatic and musical theatre styles, developing the middle mix of the weight of the voice.’ www.classicalsinger.com November 2011.  Her voice naturally took to musical theatre despite her classical training.  Her personality and voice led her to change her singing path to pursue musical theatre.
Melissa's voice chose the right repertoire for her after some study.  How does your voice respond to what you are singing?

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