Dr. Melissa Walker Glenn is an associate professor of voice and the voice area coordinator at Utah Tech University. She was previously an associate professor of voice at Brigham Young University–Hawaii. She holds degrees in vocal performance from BYU–Hawaii, the Eastman School of Music, and Arizona State University. Her students have been accepted on scholarship for graduate degrees at major universities, including Indiana University, Berklee College of Music, and the Royal Conservatory of Music. They perform worldwide in multiple genres and have won regional and national competitions through the National Association of Teachers of Singing (in classical, musical theatre, and commercial), the National Society of Arts and Letters (in classical and musical theatre), and local symphony and opera competitions. Melissa has performed as a soloist with the Phoenix Symphony, Hawaii Symphony Orchestra, Early Music Hawaii, Cantus Spiritus, Honolulu Bach Chamber Orchestra, ¡Sacabuche!, and True Concord Voices and Orchestra. She has also worked as a recording artist with Priddis Music and as a seasonal caroler at Disneyland with Goode Time Productions.
Melissa is committed to utilizing the arts as a vehicle for humanitarian work. She has organized benefit concerts for war victims in Ukraine and anti-trafficking organizations in India, spearheaded a song cycle project based on the poetry of trafficking survivors in India, and taken initiatives to decolonize curriculum at BYU–Hawaii, a university with 60-70% of its student population from the global majority. Melissa has also written the music and lyrics to a new musical, Gingerbread–a socially conscious reimagining of Hansel and Gretel. Gingerbread had a successful workshop with positive audience feedback at BYU–Hawaii in 2019 and was featured in Harrington Center for the Art’s Exploration of New Works Series in November of 2023.