About Melanie

Three-time District Winner of the Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition, Melanie Spector is a soprano who was born and raised in New York City and a recent graduate of the Resident Artist Program at Detroit Opera. In a cast headlined by Angel Blue and Christine Goerke, she made her Detroit Opera debut in the 2022-23 season as the High Priestess in Verdi's Aida, in which she was praised for her “exceptional ability to nail pitch…coupled with the supreme cleanliness of her sound” (Operawire). Coming up, Melanie sings Musetta in La Bohème conducted by Felix Jarrar at New York’s Church in the Village, and she covers the title role in the world premiere of Christopher Theofanidis' and Melissa Studdard's Siddhartha, She at the Aspen Music Festival, where she will be a Renée Fleming Artist Fellow. 

Last season with Detroit Opera, Melanie performed as Fiordiligi in the Act I Finale of Così fan tutte under the baton of Roberto Kalb with the Detroit Opera Orchestra; as Bubikopf in Ullmann's Der Kaiser von Atlantis in a collaboration with Detroit Chamber Winds & Strings; as a featured soloist in John Cage's Europeras 3 & 4, directed by Yuval Sharon, in which "her lyric coloratura sparkled in expressive passagework, rendered with stunning subtlety" (Classical Voice North America); and as Chocholka and Mrs Pásek in Janáček's Cunning Little Vixen. She also made her role debut as Donna Anna in Mozart's Don Giovanni at Savannah OPERA as part of the 2023 Savannah VOICE Festival, and subsequently covered the role at Opera Tampa.

In her first year as a Resident Artist at Detroit Opera during the 2022-23 season, her schedule included covering Atalanta in Handel's Xerxes and Margarita Xirgu in the Detroit premiere of Golijov's Ainadamar, as well as singing the High Priestess in Verdi's Aida. In recital with Detroit Opera, she performed Brahms' Liebeslieder Walzer, Op. 52 in addition to a large variety of art song repertoire. With the Midland Symphony Orchestra, she performed Mozart’s “Vorrei spiegarvi, o dio” K. 418 and Requiem, and she soloed in Orff's Carmina Burana at the Max M. and Marjorie S. Fisher Music Center, home of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, with the Wayne State University Wind Symphony and Chorus. To finish off her first season in Detroit, Melanie performed the role of Despina in Mozart's Così fan tutte in a collaboration between Detroit Opera and the Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival.

In the 2021-22 season, Melanie performed Königin der Nacht in Mozart's Die Zauberflöte with several organizations including Eugene Opera, where she  "knocked it out of the park" ; the Metropolitan Opera Guild's Access Opera Tour; and the Stuttgart Philharmonic under the direction of Dan Ettinger as part of the second annual Internationale Opernwerkstatt Waiblingen: A new, full-scholarship program created and directed by renowned baritone Thomas Hampson and soprano Melanie Diener. She also appeared at the Miami Music Festival Wagner Institute as Woglinde in Wagner's Das Rheingold, and performed Schubert's "Der Hirt auf dem Felsen" at the Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival with renowned clarinetist David Shifrin and pianist Gilles Vonsattel.

Other full role credits include Sister Constance (Dialogues of the Carmelites) and Musetta cover (La Bohème) at Savannah VOICE Festival; Nannetta cover (Falstaff) with Martina Arroyo’s Prelude to Performance program; La Fée (Cendrillon) and Miss Wordsworth (Albert Herring) at Manhattan School of Music; Dahlia in the world premiere of Sunden’s Great Moments in Human History with The Opera Next Door; and Madame Herz (The Impresario) with the International Vocal Arts Institute Outreach. Partial roles include Susanna (Le Nozze di Figaro) with the Midland Symphony Orchestra; Adina (L’Elisir d’Amore), Violetta (La Traviata), and Gilda (Rigoletto) with the Queens Symphony Orchestra; Fiordiligi (Così fan tutte) and Gretel (Hansel and Gretel) with the Metropolitan Opera Guild; Lucia (Lucia di Lammermoor), Lakmé (Lakmé), and Sophie (Der Rosenkavalier) with the VOICExperience Foundation; and Semiramide (Semiramide) with the International Vocal Arts Institute.

Melanie has received awards from several organizations in addition to the Laffont Competition for her vocal prowess, including the Gerda Lissner Foundation, the SAS Performing Arts Company, the National Society of Arts and Letters, the Camille Coloratura Awards, and the Tuesday Musicale of Detroit. She has also been a Finalist in the Lewisville Lake Symphony, Rochester International, and Dorothy Lincoln-Smith Vocal Competitions, as well as a Semi-Finalist in the Loren L. Zachary, Annapolis Opera, and James Toland Vocal Arts Competitions.

Melanie holds a Master of Music degree from Manhattan School of Music, where she was a recipient of the President's Award (merit-based scholarship) and the Provost's Award for Academic Excellence. In addition to singing, Melanie has been heard as a regular panelist on the Metropolitan Opera Quiz during Saturday matinées.