As a conductor, artistic director and educator, Dr. Melodie Galloway is known as someone who  brings people together through music that captures the beauty of the human experience. As  Professor of Music at UNC Asheville, her choirs have performed for numerous state and local  events, and for invited performances as part of the Holiday Open House Events at the White House  each fall (2006-2022), including a private audience with President and Mrs. Obama in 2012.

In 2025, she was named the Ruth Paddison Distinguished Professor of Music and Drama. Dr.  Galloway’s “Exploring Music Migrations as Markers for Cultural Identities” project aims to bridge  music and documentary film to explore cultural identities through historical artifacts in the Thistle &  Shamrock collection. Hosted by the University of North Carolina Asheville’s Center for Music and  Roots, the project investigates music-related migration stories primarily focused on European,  Scandinavian, and British Isles immigrant movements to North America while acknowledging the  transatlantic slave trade. The project will utilize Fiona Ritchie’s music collection from NPR’s award winning program, The Thistle & Shamrock, donated to the Center, and emphasize the connection  between past and present cultural identities through music. It will involve faculty-student  collaborations for research, documentary production, and undergraduate studies.

Dr. Galloway holds a master’s degree from Florida State University in Vocal Performance and a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in conducting from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.  Her experience as a conductor and soprano soloist includes opera, musical theatre, and jazz. Her  credits as a conductor include a 2012 Carnegie Hall invited performance featuring 200 singers and  orchestra. She led combined choirs and the Beethoven Academy Orchestra (Krakow) in Dan  Forrest’s Requiem for the Living in May 2017 in Vienna, Prague and Salzburg, including the Eastern  European première of the work.

Among her original compositions, written as an expression of the acute loneliness and silence caused  by the COVID pandemic and the hope of coming back together in song, is Gloria, a work for SATB  choir, brass and percussion. This inspiring work received its premiere with the Asheville Choral  Society in December, 2022. Her continued scholarship includes the choral/orchestral music of  legendary jazz artist, Dave Brubeck; how to combat the effects of aging on the voice; music and  wellness; and the migration of Celtic music to Appalachia. One of her recent papers, “Breaking  Barriers – Blurring Lines: Genre-homogenous Choral Music of Resilience: Exploring works by  Duke Ellington, Mary Lou Williams, Dave Brubeck and Margaret Bonds,” was presented as part of  the American Choral Directors Association Southern Regional Conference in Raleigh, NC,  February, 2022. She is in demand as a choral clinician, guest conductor, composer/arranger and  consultant.

Session Abstract

Intended for: Senior High School, Community Choir, Ethnic Music, College & University, TTBB Choirs, Treble Choir, Music in Worship