MM, Yale University
BM, Westminster Choir College

Hailed by Alex Ross of The New Yorker as “riveting,” and Time Out New York as a“dazzling diva, adept at old and new music,” soprano Mellissa Hughes enjoys a busy career in both contemporary and early music. A dedicated interpreter of living composers, she has collaborated with Julia Wolfe, Michael Gordon, David Lang, Steve Reich, Neil Rolnick, and has premiered works written expressly for her by Caleb Burhans, Missy Mazzoli, Ted Hearne, Jacob Cooper, Matt Marks, Corey Dargel, David T. Little and Frederic Rzewski. In the classical concert hall she has sung Mozart’s Vespers and Requiem under the baton of Sir Neville Marriner, Handel’s Dixit Dominus with Sir David Willcocks, and the title role in Dido and Aeneas under the direction of Andrew Lawrence King. Equally at home in front of a rock band, she is lead vocalist of Newspeak, an amplified alt-classical band created by composer David T. Little. Recent highlights include the world premiere of David T. Little’s Am I Born with Alan Pierson, the Brooklyn Philharmonic and the Brooklyn Youth Chorus; the world premiere of Alex Temple’s Liebeslied for the opening of the SONiC Festival; Jonathan Berger’s Theotokia with the St. Lawrence String Quartet and Pedja Muzijevic for Stanford Lively Arts; and a performance and Naxos recording of Mohammed Fairouz’s Tahwidahwith clarinetist David Krakauer. Discography includes releases on Nonesuch, Cantaloupe Music and New Amsterdam, where she is heard on many critically acclaimed albums, including Matt Marks’s The Little Death: Vol.1; Newspeak’s Sweet Light Crude; and Missy Mazzoli’s Victoire: Cathedral City.