Dr. Melissa Brunkan - Conductor
Dr. Melissa Brunkan, WCS conductor as of fall 2021, brings 25 years of experience as an active clinician, conductor and vocal pedagogue. Currently Associate Professor of Vocal/Choral Music Education at the University of Oregon, she conducts the University Singers choir and teaches courses on conducting, vocal pedagogy, choral teaching methods, and teaching in higher education.
For the past 25 years, Brunkan has taught a wide range of singers in choirs and private voice work as well as serving as musical director with a variety of theater companies. Dr. Brunkan has sung and conducted professionally with choirs and churches as well as opera and theater companies throughout the United States. Her choirs have sung with artists and conductors from countries such as China, Venezuela, and Indonesia. As a singing voice specialist serving patients of otolaryngologists in several states, she has worked with a variety of singers, speakers, performers, actors, and artists, focusing on voice habilitation and rehabilitation.
Prior to her work at the university level, Brunkan taught and conducted singers in public and private schools in the Minneapolis/St, Paul, Milwaukee, Kansas City, Baton Rouge and Chicago areas, teaching students from pre-K through adult.
As a part of her university work, she is also an active researcher specializing in research on choral conducting, choral/vocal pedagogy, lifespan vocal pedagogy, singers with medical conditions affecting the voice, and conductor gesture and behaviors.
Vicki Brabham - Accompanist
Vicki Brabham is a native to the Willamette Valley and has established herself as one of the most in-demand artists in the area. A graduate of Bushnell University, Vicki is the K-8 Music Specialist at Oak Hill Independent School, staff musician at First Congregational Church, and a founding member of the Shedd Institute's "Emerald City Jazz Kings". She appears frequently with local school and community theatrical productions.
