Melissa Stylianou - Bachelorette (2003)

Melissa Stylianou appeared on the Toronto jazz scene eight years ago and quickly earned the esteem of the Canadian jazz community. In both 2002 and 2003, she was nominated Jazz Vocalist of the Year at the National Jazz Awards. She has headlined at major jazz festivals all over Ontario, at the Festival International de Jazz de Montreal, the Atlantic Jazz Festival in Halifax, Nova Scotia and The Brandon Jazz Festival in Manitoba. Melissa performs regularly at the country's best jazz clubs and has developed a loyal home-base audience, while her skills as a composer/lyricist have been receiving attention across Canada. In 2004, she was the recipient of a Toronto Arts Council Music Creators Grant and in 2005, Melissa was honoured to receive a Canada Council for the Arts Grant for Professional Musicians.

With this grant, Melissa is currently living in New York studying composition, theory and vocal technique with Garry Dial, Theo Bleckmann and Tom Schilling. In the coming year, Melissa plans to increase national and international performance opportunities and share her work as a Canadian artist. Melissa graduated from the acting program at Ryerson Theatre School in Toronto and it was during those years that she discovered her love of jazz. In 1997, after private studies with the renowned vocalist Carol Welsman, Melissa became the leader of her first trio featuring Richard Whiteman on piano and Artie Roth on bass. In 2001, the Trio gave way to the Melissa Stylianou Sextet (2001 - 2004) with John MacLeod, Nancy Walker, Ted Warren, Kim Ratcliffe and Artie Roth. A new trio formed out of the Sextet (with Ratcliffe and Roth) and this group held the coveted Friday evening performance slot at The Rex Hotel in Toronto from 2000 - 2005. Melissa's current group features Rob Piltch, Andrew Downing and Davide Direnzo. The Melissa Stylianou Quartet traveled across Canada that summer to support Melissa's third album, which featured many original compositions and arrangements. With funding from both the Ontario Arts Council and FACTOR, this record introduces Melissa as a talented songwriter/lyricist as well as builds on her reputation as one of Canada's finest interepreters of the jazz repertoire. Melissa's debut album, it never entered my mind (SBM), was released in 1999 and features Richard Whiteman on piano and Artie Roth on bass. In 2001, Melissa released her second album, bachelorette (SBM), to rave reviews.