teaching
Melissa's approach to teaching is based first and foremost on musicality. Students learn, along with breathing and vocal technique, harmony, piano basics, phrasing and expression, choice of repertoire, improvisation and how to interact with the other musicians in a group. Much emphasis is placed on developing one's own individual musical personality and unique sound.
Melissa taught at the 2002, 2003 and 2005 editions of the Appennino Music Festival, held every summer in the heart of the Tuscan-Emilian hills. The festival started in 2001 and immediately attracted a large audience, with students from Italy, Germany, France and the United States attending the seminars. At the end of the 2005 edition, a chorus of children gave the first performance of Se Il Mondo Non Cambierà, a piece written by Stott for the occasion.
Stott is also on the staff of the Association Onda Blu (Vergato, Italy), under the direction of Monica Tolomellli, where she teaches on the individual and group singing course along with colleague Enrico Covili. She also directs and writes arrangements for the choral group formed by the students on the group course. Cominciamo di Nuovo is the piece she wrote for her students on the singing course, first performed December 2005. Twice a year the school produces a musical show in which up to 300 students of different disciplines take part. Melissa wrote additional music for Onda Blu's 2005 version of Chicago and has been doing the vocal arrangements for the musicals performed in these last five years. |
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