Board of Trustees
Melissa Shallberg MME
Executive Secretary
Melissa Ann Shallberg is originally from Mason City, Iowa, the town on which Meredith Willson based River City for The Music Man. After brief study at Luther College she graduated from Iowa State University with a degree in Music Education, continuing voice and conducting at St. John’s University, the UMKC Conservatory, and Baker University. She completed a Master’s Degree in Vocal Pedagogy at the University of Kansas. She is a member of the Voice Care Network and has completed summer studies with the Network in Minnesota.
She has been heard as soloist in Orff’s Carmina Burana, Handel’s Messiah, Vivaldi’s Gloria, Mozart’s Solemn Vespers, and Rutter’s Requiem. Stage roles include Brigadoon, The Mikado, and Die Zauberflöte. In 2002 Paul Horsley of The Kansas City Star wrote that she “sang O Holy Night with a thrilling crystal-clear voice that never cloyed.”
She was a member of the William Baker Festival Singers from 1999–2011, Associate Music Director from 2002–2011, and Executive Associate Music Director of the Choral Foundation from 2009–2011. Since returning to Iowa in 2011 she has been a member and vocal coach of Una Vocis, Founder & Music Director of NordKor, Adjunct Professor of Music at Waldorf University, and Founder & Music Director of the Iowa Festival Singers. She has served as Executive Secretary of the Board since 2019.