BIO
Jazz vocalist, lyricist, and educator Melissa Stylianou, hailed by piano master Fred Hersch for her “gorgeous instrument, superb musicianship, and great taste,” has garnered acclaim as both a gifted songwriter and a bold, imaginative interpreter of wide-ranging material spanning diverse genres, from the Great American Songbook to Johnny Cash to Joanna Newsom. Stylianou is also one-third of the infectious, Boswell Sisters-inspired close-harmony vocal trio Duchess, which has amassed many mentions in year-end critics’ polls and received the 2021 & 2022 Vocal Group of the Year Award from the Jazz Journalists Association.
In addition to her five albums as a leader and four with Duchess to date, Stylianou has documented her close musical bond with guitar legend Gene Bertoncini and sought-after bassist Ike Sturm on the 2022 album Dream Dancing (awarded 5 stars in Downbeat Magazine). This intimate, collaborative, highly spontaneous trio focuses on standards, with Bertoncini’s astute nylon-string voicings and arrangements in the forefront. She has made numerous top festival and club appearances, toured internationally, and is currently developing a project that will combine her Irish and Greek-Cypriot musical roots.
Melissa has been teaching voice lessons privately for over 20 years and was on the faculty of the 92NY School of Music from 2009- 2023. She is also an early childhood music educator, teaching Music Together family classes as well as music in various preschools in the NY-area.