“His rapid, almost breathless delivery… was a tour-de-force!”
-Classical Voice of North Carolina
Hailed as a “tour de force” (Classical Voice of North Carolina), Kyle Melton, tenor, has gained recognition as an artist both on the operatic and concert stage. Recently, he accepted a position in the voice faculty at Southeastern Louisiana University. This season, Kyle will appear as Yab in Mark Adamo’s Becoming Santa Claus with Opéra Louisiane and will sing the role of King Kaspar in Menotti’s Amahl and the Night Visitors with Broadmoor Baptist Church. Recent season highlights include his debut with the Acadian Symphony Orchestra as the tenor soloist in Bach’s cantata, Christ lag in Todesbanden, BWV 4, his return to the Turner-Fischer Center for Opera as Tamino in Die Zauberflöte, the tenor soloist in Bach’s Magnificat with Highland Baptist Church in Louisville, KY, and the tenor soloist in Stainer’s The Crucifixion, a joint performance with St. James Episcopal Church and First United Methodist Church in Baton Rouge, LA.
Kyle operatic repertoire includes Tamnino in Die Zauberflöte, Ferrando in Così fan tutte, le chevalier des Grieux in Manon, Don Ramiro in La Cenerentola, Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly, Dan Leno in Puts’ Elizabeth Cree, Lensky in Eugene Onegin, and Rinuccio in Gianni Schicchi, to name a few. He has appeared with regional and international opera companies, including Opera Carolina, The Turner-Fischer Center for Opera, Operá Louisane, Operafestival di Roma, and Accademia dell’opera Europea. Kyle was an artist-in-residence for two seasons at Opera Carolina and appeared as a member of their ensemble for four consecutive seasons. Having gained a passion for new music, he has premiered a variety of new operatic works by up-and-coming composers, including Camargo’s Emily Somebody in 2023, which won the American Prize for both composition and stage direction.
In 2020, Kyle made his stage directing and producing debut, with SNATS at LSU, directing and producing Purcell’s Dido & Aeneas and producing Pergolesi’s La serva padrona. Since then, in addition to several scenes including the main-stage of The Turner-Fischer Center for Opera, Kyle has produced and directed full-scale productions of Suor Angelica in 2022 and Lee Hoiby’s Bon Appetit with the LSU Honor’s College. He is set to direct Menotti’s Amahl and the Night Visitors at Broadmoor Baptist Church in February 2025.
Kyle recently graduated, earning a Doctor of Musical Arts in vocal performance with a minor in vocal pedagogy from Louisiana State University. His dissertation, Singing through Cancer: Promoting Vocal Health for the Cancer Survivor received the highly competitive LSU Dissertation Fellowship for the 2023/2024 academic year. In addition to his fellowship, Kyle has also received The Turner-Fischer Center for Opera Scholarship, and was a Fulbright Scholar Finalist in 2022. Kyle holds Master of Music in Vocal Performance from Louisiana State University and a Bachelor of Arts in Music from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, where he specialized in Voice, Viola, and Violin Performance, with a minor area in French. Recently, he completed the coursework for a Certificate in Vocology at the Summer Vocology Institute in Salt Lake City under the tutelage of Dr. Ingo Titze.
Kyle currently serves as a member of the voice faculty in Department of Music and Performing Arts at Southeastern Louisiana University. He resides in Baton Rouge, Louisiana and maintains an active voice studio and performance schedule.
