Melanie S. Michalak holds Bachelor and Master of Music degrees, with concentrations in choral music education, Renaissance choral literature, and music theory and composition. She also holds a Diploma in ethnic studies and ethnic music from the Jagiellonian University of Krakow, Poland. She continues postgraduate studies in Vocal Performance, Music Education, and Drama. A soprano, she also performs solo recitals throughout the Chicago area.
From 1990 through 1992, she researched, wrote and designed twelve book-length teacher and student guides to the Youth Symphony Concerts for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. She has published dozens of articles about the interpretation of music, musical freestyle for dressage, and has been a regular contributor to Dressage and CT Magazine since 1993.
Melanie has been director of Choral Music and Theatre at Evergreen Park Community High School, District 231, Evergreen Park, Illinois, since 1982. During that tenure, her Concert Choir, Madrigal Ensemble, and private voice students have won more than 1,000 first division ratings in state, regional, national, and international competition, and earned more than $1,250,000 in performance scholarships. Among those awards, the Evergreen Park Madrigal Singers have earned 23 successive first division ratings in annual IHSA competition, and "grand champion" status at the Toronto International Music Festival and the World of Music Festivals, Nashville Tennessee. Her choirs’ concert tour of Italy included performances in Florence, Venice, Siena, Rome, and at the Vatican. Melanie was honored by the mayor of Florence for her work with the Italian Madrigal, an art form that developed in that city. Concert tours of Spain and Hawaii included performances in Barcelona, Madrid, and on both the USS Missouri and USS Arizona memorials. In Spring, 2005, she conducted many concerts throughout Texas, including performances at NASA, Rice University, and at the state capital, Austin. She has released seven CDs featuring original and classical music performed by her choirs, and is currently recording an eighth for release next year.
Melanie was named to the Marquis Who’s Who Among American Women in 2004. She has also been named to the Marquis Who's Who In American Education and Who’s Who In The World. In 1993, she was of ten "Outstanding Women in American Music" honored by the University of Wisconsin, Madison at the international symposium, Women in American Music: Models Of Creativity. She has been a six-time Who's Who Among America's Teachers honoree, and was awarded Outstanding Music Educator by Music Festivals International.
