MELANIE SCHOLTZ

Based in Cape Town

Award winning songbird Melanie Scholtz has achieved praise in South Africa as well as internationally. Winning the Old Mutual Jazz Encounters competition in 2002 as Best Jazz Vocalist and performing the South African Anthem at the Presidents’ Cup in 2003 in front of a world audience of 1 billion people. Melanie Scholtz has performed on live Norwegian radio as well as part of a Music against Misery concert in Holland in 2002. She has worked with the cream of South Africa’s musicians; Jimmy Dludlu, Sibongile Khumalo and Judith Sephuma, amongst others.

Melanie started singing at a an early age. Coming from a musical family, she was exposed to different kinds of music as she grew up, and at age 17 she enrolled at the Opera School at the University of Cape Town, where she graduated cum laude in 2001. While studying opera and classical singing, Melanie continued to listen to and sing jazz as well, and is today an incredibly versatile singer. Whether it is jazz, pop, classical, r&b or electronica, Melanie sounds equally stylistically correct.

In the years following her "Old Mutual Jazz Encounters" victory, Melanie built a successful career in her hometown of Cape Town as well as in the rest of South Africa . She apperared on South African guitarist Jimmy Dludlu's album "Afrocentric", sang alongside Al Jarreau on "the Felicia Show" and sang the National Anthem in front of Nelson Mandela and millions of TV viewers for the Presidents Cup in George. She performed two years running on SABC's "Woman of the year" awards and had concerts in Holland , Germany and Norway , as well as performing with Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra, Sibonghile Khumalo, Joe McBride, Gerald Veasley and many more.

In 2006 Melanie Scholtz is finally releasing her debut full length solo album, entitled "Zillion Miles"

SOUND SAMPLE
Someone to Watch Over Me
Peaceful Love
Love For Sale

DOWNLOAD REPERTOIRE LIST

LEAD ROLES IN THE FOLLOWING PRODUCTIONS
Duke Ellington Sacred Concerts
Carmen Jones
Valley Song (edited promotional version)
Meeting the needs

SOLO PERFORMANCES
Bigband swing I and II with the Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra.
Festival Cruise Liners
Cape Town International Jazz Festival
The V&A Standard Bank Jazzathon
MAM-Music against Misery concert with Dutch Strings

ENSEMBLES
Admit 2 (voice and guitar)
Demaj (jazz,r&b, african vocal quartet)
Souled (electronic based quartet)
Mamavox
Mel Scholtz Group
Strait and Narro

SPECIAL PERFORMANCES
The Anthem for The President’s Cup Golf tournament international worldwide television broadcast. Quincy Jones : The Nelson Mandela Blue Train Charity
Felicia Talk Show
SABC Woman of the year Awards Television show 2001/2002.

SHOWS WRITTEN, DIRECTED AND PERFORMED
Project Porter- A tribute to Cole Porter
Melanious Thonk

RECORDINGS
Melanie Scholtz-Everything you need
Strait and Narro-Ahead
Breakfast Included-Night ahead
Goldfish- Caught in the loop
KJ Stone – In many voices
Sessions for Milestones Studio, BNS and Nuthouse studios.

CURRENT BAND PERFORMANCE VENUES
Railway House Restaurant
Zula
Mannenberg
Green Dolphin
Reubens

AWARDS AND REVIEWS
1997 : Ruth Ormond Prize
1999: Fish Hoek Bursary Competition
1999: National Arts Council Bursary
2000: The Council Scholarship for Music/Ballet
2000:The Hilda Moore Scholarship for study of Lieder
2000: Induction as member of Golden Key National Honours Society.
2002 : Winner in the Jazz Vocalist Category in the Old Mutual Jazz Encounters

OTHER PERFORMING EXPERIENCE
1993 : Latin American Rhumba in the Jungle Champion (Sun City).
1994 : South African Ballroom Champion (Durban).

LAUNCH/COMMERCIAL EXPERIENCE
Mercedes Benz Launch advertisement in 1998.
Clinique Happy perfume launch in 1998.
Angels’ Share Brandy Cream launch in Durban , Cape Town and Johannesburg.
Opel Meriva launch in Johannesburg
VR Brandy launch with original theme song in Cape Town, Durban, Johannesburg and Port Elizabeth