Melanie DeMore

Melanie DeMore is originally from the South Bronx in N.Y., N.Y. Her mother, Joan Gloria Pasco DeMore, a soprano singer, was one of the first women to be accepted into Julliard. Her father, Frank William DeMore, a tenor singer, opened the first Musical Theater Company in Alaska where they produced everything from Carmen to Porgy and Bess. At the age of five Melanie's mother began teaching her to play the piano so by age thirteen Melanie began writing her own songs.

Eventually, Melanie received her own music degree in flute, piano and music history from Incarnet College in San Antonio, Texas. During college she collaborated with a classmate, Rob Abernathy to compose and perform musical scores for all the Drama Department productions. Melanie also played flute for, and was the only woman in, an off campus jazz band. The fact that in college Melanie was primarily known for her instrumental work both as a composer and a performance artist is sort of ironic when you consider that her claim to fame now is her incredible vocal talents. After graduating college she spent approximately five years in a convent where she wrote at least fifteen to twenty spiritually inspired songs that have never been recorded.

This time period perhaps lays the foundation for the kind of artist Melanie is today, an inspirational woman spreading the healing power of music both with her work as a dedicated teacher, composer for the Oakland Youth Choir and as a facilitator for the program she developed called Sound Awareness, not to mention countless collaborations and performances with a wide variety of artists, a list that includes but is not limited to Pete Seeger, Sweet Honey in the Rock and Linda Tillery and the Cultural Heritage Choir. Her strength as an artist, comes I believe, from her dedication to the expansion of the human spirit, as Melanie said "it is not art to leave people in despair. As an artist I must help point out solutions so that I leave people with the space to make some kind of positive change." Her definition of success is not based on record sales but in her ability to touch someone on the inside with her music. Melanie continues over the years to write scores for local theater productions, to conduct for a variety of different choral groups, to write, sing, and produce her own songs sometimes for herself but by in large with and for other people. Like the song Voice of Mother Africa which she wrote for Linda Tillery and the Cultural Heritage Choir or the song Ashao a beautiful song about Kwannza written for the Oakland Youth Choir.

Her work with the Oakland Youth Choir is as conductor for the youngest group coming in, who are usually around fourteen. Many of these kids have little to no experience singing with a choir. They are suffering from low self-esteem and many other hazards of urban living. So Melanie has a big job on her hands but clearly sees this as one of the most gratifying parts of her job. She said to me "I love working with the kids who can barely open their mouths at the beginning but then by the end you have to tell them to be quiet". I personally witnessed Melanie's powers of transformation when my little sister joined OYC a few years ago. It is no small task to bring a group of hormone heavy teenagers to a harmonious ensemble.

Melanie's Sound Awareness program began about ten years ago now. Primarily for the purpose of helping prisoners and addicts in rehab remap their cells by helping them to focus on the effect words, music, and rhythm have on people. Music can have spiritual, political and economic power and it also has the power to comfort and heal. This is what Sound Awareness is all about helping people to understand how sound influences the choices we make all the time and to help them heal old wounds. Since it's inception the Sound Awareness program has expanded to include schools and workshops. Having the opportunity to interview Melanie was both an honor and a privilege. The light she sends out into the world radiates all around her. To find out more about bringing her Sound Awareness program to your school contact Speak Out at speakout@igc.apc.org

Last Updated: 2/3/06