Melanie Catana

Since 2009, Melanie Catana has been serving as Assistant Professor of Voice and Director of the Lamplighters Choirs at Waynesburg University. Her responsibilities at Waynesburg University include directing two choirs, leading the chapel worship team, teaching individual voice lessons and various music courses. She is a member of the Dalcroze Society of America and the American Choral Directors Association of Pennsylvania.

American soprano Catana has appeared with the New York City Opera as Micaela in "Carmen" in three consecutive seasons and as Gilda in "Rigoletto" with Fresno Opera in California. Elsewhere, she has appeared with Central City Opera (Micaela and Alma in "Summer and Smoke"), Sarasota Opera (title role in "Lucia di Lammermoor"), Pittsburgh Opera (Musetta in "La Boheme" and Sophie in "Werther"), and a number of roles with Pittsburgh Opera Center (the title role in "Lucia di Lammermoor," Anne Trulove in "The Rake’s Progress," Melisande in "Pelleas et Melisande," and Despina in "Cosi fan tutte") under the direction of the renowned Tito Capobianco.       

On the concert stage, Catana has appeared at Carnegie Hall in New York City with the New England Symphonic Ensemble (Faure’s "Requiem," Haydn’s "Third Mass- Lord Nelson," and "Mass in Time of War," and Mozart’s "Vesperae Solennes"), the Westchester Choral Arts (Rossini’s "Petite Messe Solonelle"), Williamsport Symphony Orchestra (Dvorak’s "Te Deum"), Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra (excerpts from "Romeo et Juliette" Gounod’s as Juliette), Northeast PA Philharmonic (Orff’s "Carmina Burana"), Westmoreland Symphony Orchestra (Mozart’s "Alleluia"), Washington County Arts Choir ("Messiah," Rutter "Magnificat"), Johnstown Symphony Orchestra and the Mozart Club in Winston-Salem (Handel’s "Messiah"), and Carnegie-Mellon Philharmonic (Poulenc’s "Gloria," Orff’s "Carmina Burana," and Villa Lobos’ "Bachianas Brasileiras"). In Italy, she has sung Gilda in excerpts from "Rigoletto" with the Orchestra del Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa under the direction of the famed soprano Renata Scotto.

Catana is an alumna of the graduate and undergraduate voice performance programs of Carnegie Mellon University, where she studied voice under Ms. Mimi Lerner and choral music with Dr. Robert Page. She was a recipient of the Richard F. Gold Career Grant from the Shoshana Foundation, Opera Index Scholarship and The Lee Schaenen Foundation grant.  During her graduate years, she also attended Renata Scotto’s Opera Academy in Savona, Italy, and studied with Ms. Joanna Levy in New York City.

B.A., M.A., Carnegie Mellon University; M.M. in Vocal Performance with a Music Teaching Certification, Carnegie Mellon University