Melissa Brunkan
Dr. Melissa C. Brunkan is an Associate Professor of Vocal/Choral Music Education and Area Chair of Music Education at the University of Oregon, where she has served on the music education faculty since 2017. She teaches courses in vocal pedagogy, choral conducting, and music teaching methods and conducts University Singers, a 75-voice SATB ensemble. A scholar, educator, conductor, and voice specialist, Dr. Brunkan brings more than three decades of experience working with singers and musicians across educational, professional, and community settings. She earned degrees from the University of Minnesota, Northwestern University, and the University of Kansas and previously served as an Assistant Professor of Vocal Music Education at Louisiana State University. Before entering higher education, she taught for twelve years in public and private schools throughout Minneapolis/St. Paul, Milwaukee, and Chicago, working with students from pre-K through adulthood and specializing in secondary choral and vocal music. Her extensive professional experience also includes private voice instruction, voice pedagogy consultation, choral conducting, musical theater direction, and workshop facilitation.
As a performer and conductor, Dr. Brunkan has worked with choirs, opera and theater companies, and churches throughout the United States. Her performance career has taken her to major musical centers including Denver, New York, New Orleans, and Chicago. She has also developed and led innovative community-based singing initiatives, including a choir for adults with intellectual disabilities, a children’s choir serving underserved populations, a choir for people with Parkinson’s Disease and an online choir supporting caregivers of children with chronic illness. Her ensembles have collaborated with artists and conductors from China, Venezuela, Indonesia, and other international communities and have performed in venues ranging from the Minnesota State Capitol to the Kennedy Center. She currently serves as Artistic Director and Conductor of the Women’s Choral Society of Eugene, a 125-voiced treble choir.
Dr. Brunkan’s research explores the intersection of vocal health, pedagogy, performance, and human development. Her scholarship focuses on gesture in choral and vocal pedagogy, conductor gesture and behavior, lifespan voice pedagogy, singers with medical conditions affecting the voice, and the aging female voice.
She has presented her research nationally and internationally in venues across the United States and in Dubai, Scotland, Newfoundland, and Greece. Her scholarship appears in leading journals including the Journal of Voice, Journal of Research in Music Education, International Journal of Research in Choral Singing, and International Journal of Music Education. She has also contributed to the profession through leadership roles in organizations including the American Choral Directors Association and National Association for Music Education and through service on the editorial boards of the International Journal of Research in Choral Singing and College Music Society.
Through her teaching, scholarship, conducting, and community engagement, Dr. Brunkan connects research with musical experiences across the lifespan. Her work reflects a sustained commitment to developing healthy, expressive singers and conductors while expanding access to high-quality music-making in educational and community settings.
- PhD 2012, Music Education, The University of Kansas - Lawrence
- MMus 1999, Voice and Opera, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois
- BMus 1995, Music Education, University of Minnesota - Minneapolis
Selected Publications
Brunkan, M. C. (2016). Relationships of a circular singer arm gesture to acoustical and perceptual measures of singing: A motion capture study. Update: Applications of Research in Music Education, 34(3), 56 – 62. DOI: 10.1177/8755123314567782.
Johnson, C. M., Williams, L. R., Parisi, J., & Brunkan, M. C. (2016). Behavioral characteristics and instructional patterns of expert teaching, and the transfer those behaviors into a musical setting: Two case studies. International Journal of Research in Music Education: Research, (34)3, 299 – 310. DOI: 10.1177/0255761415619060.
Brunkan, M. C. (2015). The effects of singer gestures on acoustic and perceptual measures of solo singing. International Journal of Music and Performing Arts, 3(1), 35 – 45.
Brunkan, M. C. (2014). Bob and the Bobolinks: Singing to brand a candidate in the 1960 senatorial campaign of Bob Dole. Popular Music and Society, 37, 557–582.
Brunkan, M. C. (2013). The effects of watching three types of conductor gestures and performing varied gestures along with the conductor on measures of singers' intonation and tone quality: A pilot study. International Journal of Research in Choral Singing, 4(2), 37–51.
Daugherty, J. F., & Brunkan, M. C. (2013). Monkey See, monkey do? The effect of nonverbal conductor lip rounding on visual and acoustic measures of singers’ lip postures. Journal of Research in Music Education, 60, 345 – 362.
Daugherty, J. F., Manternach, J. N., & Brunkan, M. C. (2013). Acoustic and perceptual measures of SATB choir performances on two types of portable choral riser units in three singer spacing conditions. International Journal of Music Education: Research, 31, 346–358.
Brunkan, M.C. (2013). Children’s and instructor’s perceptions of using VoceVista in a voice exploration session focusing on gentle onset of phonation and articulation of consonants. Proceedings of the Phenomenon of Singing VII International Symposium, St. John’s, Newfoundland, 1 – 14.
Daugherty, J. F., & Brunkan, M. C. (2013). The effect of conductor lip rounding on individual singers’ lip postures during sung Latin [u] vowels: Preliminary findings. Proceedings of the Phenomenon of Singing VII International Symposium, St. John’s, Newfoundland, 50 – 58.
Madsen, C. K., Johnson, C. M., Geringer, J. M., Southall, J., & Brunkan, M. C. (2012). Effects of a brief distraction on perceptions of attention, aesthetic response, and flow during music listening. Proceedings of the Twenty-fourth International Seminar on Research in Music Education, Thessaloniki, Greece, 140 – 147.