Biography
Melissa Treinkman is an assistant professor of musical theatre vocal performance at the University of Southern California, where she teaches applied voice and vocal pedagogy. She earned a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from USC and was the recipient of the Thornton Vocal Arts Outstanding Graduate Award. She also holds a master of music degree from DePaul University and a bachelor of music degree from Northwestern University.
Dr. Treinkman has conducted original research in the areas of vocal fatigue, focus of attention in voice training, and music performance anxiety. Her scholarly articles have been published in the Journal of Singing, the Journal of Voice, and the Musical Theatre Educators’ Alliance Journal. She has presented her research to the National Association of Teachers of Singing, the Pan American Vocology Association, the Association for Popular Music Education, the Voice Study Centre, and the Voice Foundation. She was the 2020 recipient of the Voice Foundation’s Sataloff Award for Young Investigators and was the first researcher to win the award in the category of vocal pedagogy. In 2024, she received the inaugural Richard Sjoerdsma Award for Excellence in Writing Award from the National Association of Teachers of Singing.
As a mezzo-soprano, her opera career has taken her to opera companies throughout the country, including Chicago Opera Theater, Utah Opera, Sarasota Opera, Cedar Rapids Opera, Opera North and Los Angeles Opera. At LA Opera, she sang in the featured ensemble for the GRAMMY-award winning production of The Ghosts of Versailles, performed the role of the Vendor in Carmen and performed the role of a page in Tannhäuser. She is also a member of the LA Opera Chorus and a teaching artist with LA Opera Connects, which brings opera to the Los Angeles community. A champion of new music, Treinkman performed the role of Dulcinea in the world premiere of Juan Colomer’s opera Dulcinea XL and was a featured singer in the world premiere of the dance opera Beyond the Waterfront, produced by the Heidi Duckler Dance Theater and LA Opera. www.melissatreinkman.com
Professional experience
Career Highlights:
Noble Page, Tannhäuser, LA Opera, 2022
El Ángel, Las tres mujeres de Jerusalén (Lucero), LA Opera (workshop performance), 2021
Vendor, Carmen, LA Opera, 2017
Dulcinea, Dulcinea XL, LA Grand Ensemble, 2019
“If These Walls Could Sing: Baroque Music and Romanelli’s Art,” LA Opera Outreach at Norton Simon Museum, April 27, 2019
Publications:
Melissa Treinkman, “Don’t Follow Your Instincts: Ten Ways Musical Theatre Singing Training Can Be Counterintuitive,” Musical Theatre Educators’ Alliance Journal (2024).
Melissa Treinkman, “Focus of Attention in Voice Training,” Journal of Voice 36, no. 5 (September 2022): P733.E1-733.E8.
Melissa Treinkman and Michael Johns, III, “Does Vocal Fatigue Negatively Affect Low Vocal Range in Professional, Female Opera Singers? A Survey Study and a Single-Subject Pilot Study,” Journal of Voice 38, no. 3 (2024): 688-696.
“Focus of Attention: A Review and Update for Singers and Teachers,” Journal of Singing 77, no. 3 (Jan/Feb 2021): 407-718.
“Lifting the Curse of Knowledge in Voice Pedagogy,” Journal of Singing 75, no. 3 (Jan/Feb 2019): 337-344.
Conference Presentations:
Moderation is Overrated: Using Extremes to Find the In-Betweens in the Voice Studio, Association for Popular Music Education Conference, Los Angeles, June 7, 2024
Push, Squeeze, or Stretch? Training Optimal Pitch Changing Methods in the Voice Studio, Northwest Voice Conference, Seattle, WA, May 3. 2024
Demystifying and Utilizing Nasal Resonance, Pan American Vocology Conference, Miami, FL, September 25, 2023
Step by Step: A Framework for Helping Students Achieve Their Dreams, College Music Society National Conference, Miami, FL, October, 2023
Building Accountability & Motivation in the Voice Studio, Association for Popular Music Education Conference, New Orleans, LA, June 2, 2023
Not Lost in Translation: Using Focus of Attention Directives in Voice Training, Voice Foundation Annual Symposium, Philadelphia, PA, June 3, 2022
Don’t Follow Your Instincts: Ten Ways Musical Theatre Singing Can Be Counterintuitive, National Association of Teachers of Singing Cal-Western Regional Conference, Virtual Conference, January 15, 2022
Focus of Attention in Voice Training, Pan American Vocology Association Virtually PAVA Symposium, August 2021.
The Manifestation of Vocal Fatigue: A Survey of Professional, Female Opera Singers and a Single-Subject Study of One Professional Opera Singer, Melissa Treinkman, DMA and Michael Johns, III, MD, Voice Foundation Annual Voice Symposium, (virtual), June 5, 2021.
Lifting the Curse of Knowledge in Voice Pedagogy. National Association of Teachers of Singing National Conference, Virtual Conference, June 2020.
Focus of Attention in Voice Training. Voice Foundation Annual Voice Symposium (virtual), May 2020.
Recordings:
Featured singer, The Ghosts of Versailles, Los Angeles Opera
2017 Grammy winner: “Best Opera Recording” and “Best Engineered Album, Classical”
Awards:
Sataloff Award for Young Investigators, The Voice Foundation, 2020