Melanie DeMore

Melanie DeMore is a singer-songwriter, composer, conductor, and vocal activist and one of the most outstanding vocal artists today helping to preserve the African American Folk Tradition through song and Gullah stick pounding. She was the subject of the documentary Stick and Pound, which showcases this tradition. She has a career spanning 30 years dedicated to teaching, lecturing, mentoring, conducting, directing, and inspiring children and adults about the power of song as social and political change.

Melanie is a sought-after presenter, conductor, and soloist at national and international choral and music festivals, including Festival 500 in New Foundland, Canada, and Chorus America. She is a Master Teaching Artist for Cal Performances at UC Berkeley, adjunct faculty at the California Institute for Integral Studies, and a featured presenter for SpeakOut!, the Institute for Social and Cultural Change.

She has also been a formidable presence at such noted venues as Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center. A founding member of the Grammy-nominated Linda Tillery and the Cultural Heritage Choir, Melanie has had the pleasure of sharing the stage with such varied artists as Odetta, Richie Havens, Pete Seeger, the Trinity Choir (NYC), VocalEssence (Minneapolis), MUSE Cincinnati Women's Choir, and many others.

Melanie believes in the power of voices raised together and tightening the weave of community. Nothing is closer to her heart than bringing people together wherever she is to experience the healing power of music—she says, “A song can hold you up when there seems to be no ground beneath you.”

Her mission is to make sure you unlock the key to experiencing yourself in all your Glory and return home with the very same excitement and passion for living that she herself has. When she comes your way, her energy will charge the very air you breathe like a meteor shower—so get ready to rise up!