Melinda O'Neal
Additional Biographical Information
O’Neal’s collaborative work has included conducting the New Hampshire Symphony Orchestra and Handel Society in performances of Poulenc’s Gloria and Brahms’ Schicksalslied and preparing the singers for Mahler’s Symphony No. 2. As guest conductor-in-residence for the Seattle Symphony Orchestra Chorale in 1995, O’Neal prepared Berlioz’s La damnation de Faust for Gerard Schwarz. While chorus master for the New Hampshire Symphony Orchestra, O’Neal prepared the singers for Berlioz’s Requiem, Verdi’s Requiem and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9. Of the Verdi Requiem performance, Richard Dyer of the Boston Globe wrote, “The chorus master Melinda O'Neal had trained them to sing everything musically – there was none of the fancy murmuring and false theatrics that disfigure so many performances of this genuinely dramatic music. Everything they did was clean and honest." Of Monadnock Music’s performance of Gluck's Orphée et Eurydice, Richard Binder wrote, "The 12-member chorus, prepared by Melinda O'Neal, was divine. Singing stylishly and with a superb balance both internally and in relation to the [solo] singers, they were one of the evening's highlights."
Dedicated to teaching and nurturing young singers, O’Neal conducted the all-undergraduate Dartmouth College Chamber Singers for seventeen years. This 32-voice ensemble presented an annual Feast of Song renaissance music-drama banquet and inaugurated a series of collaborations with the period instrument orchestra Arcadia Players (Amherst, MA), performing vocal-instrumental works by Purcell, Bach, Mozart, Haydn and Handel. Chamber Singers concertized on tour in England, Spain, Germany/Austria as well as the United States’ east coast and midwest. Chamber Singers regularly premièred works by Dartmouth faculty and students as part of the music department’s New Music Festival. In Hanover, O’Neal also founded and conducted the professional twelve-voice Groupe Vocale de St. Denis (Hanover, NH) which performed for evensong services and commissioned Musica Dei Opyimum by Dartmouth music faculty member Charles Dodge.
Throughout her conducting career, O’Neal has been an active teacher. Since 1979 O’Neal has advised and mentored countless Dartmouth College students enrolled in music courses on campus and in London during the department’s study term abroad, independent private conducting students and members of performing ensembles. Many alumni/ae continue a life-long involvement in music, and some have pursued graduate music studies at institutions including Columbia University, Indiana University, Eastman School of Music, University of Illinois, Peabody Institute, Florida State University and Boston University, to name a few. While visiting professor and conductor at Indiana University (Fall semester, 1999), O’Neal conducted the Contemporary Vocal Ensemble and taught and advised graduate conducting students. As a visiting professor for the 1996-7 academic year, O’Neal taught conducting at the doctoral, masters and undergraduate programs at University of Georgia (Athens) where she also conducted the Concert Choir, University Chorus and Camerata. From 1987-90 O’Neal administered and taught in the Dartmouth Conducting Institute, a summer workshop for professional conductors which she founded.
Since 2002, O’Neal has brought her versatility and knowledge of vocal repertoire to Boston Vocal Artists’ Sonique, a 10-voice professional ensemble performing solo and ensemble vocal chamber music composed from the 19th century to the present. Her work has been in collaboration with vocal coach and pianist Steven Morris. Recent concerts with Sonique included new compositions by Christian Wolff, Charles Dodge, John D. McDonald and Ileana Perez Velazquez, and a selection of music based on folksong and myth by Ravel, Britten and Brahms. Concerts in 2003 and 2004 focused on music by Hector Berlioz and 20th-century British and American music.
O’Neal 's continuing research and performance interests include the relationship of text and music, historical performance practices, and the music of Hector Berlioz. O’Neal gives lectures and workshop demonstrations on Berlioz’s vocal music, and she is currently writing a guide for study and performance of this repertoire. Her articles on Mozart, Berlioz and performance practices may be located in the Choral Journal, Journal of the Conductors Guild, and Becoming the Complete Conductor (ECS Publishing). Back to Top
