Nationally acclaimed award-winning composer Melissa Dunphy has composed in a wide range of styles and mediums, particularly in the realm of theatre. Her large-scale choral work the Gonzales Cantata was performed at the 2009 Philadelphia Fringe Festival, and received rave press and reviews from The Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, Harper's Magazine, and MSNBC's Rachel Maddow. Melissa received her Bachelor of Music (summa cum laude, Pi Kappa Lambda) from West Chester University, where she was a recipient of the Harry Wilkinson Music Theory Scholarship, the Charles S. and Margherita Gangemi Memorial Scholarship for excellence in music theory and composition, and the Janice Weir Etshied '50 Scholarship for academic excellence. She is currently undertaking doctoral studies in composition at the University of Pennsylvania on a Benjamin Franklin Fellowship.

2010

What do you think I fought for at Omaha Beach? (SATB)
Winner of the 2010 Simon Carrington Chamber Singers Composition Competition. Premiered by the Simon Carrington Chamber Singers on May 28, 2010, at Grace & Holy Trinity Cathedral in Kansas City, MO, and First Presbyterian Church in Lawrence, KS.
Video
  Incidental music for Macbeth (erhu, metal bowls, assorted percussion, voice)
Composed for the Philadelphia Shakespeare Theatre.
 

Jack and the Beanstalk Orchestral Suite (orchestra, SATB youth choir, narrator)
Composed for the Immaculata Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Ovidiu Marinescu, and the Kennett Symphony Children's Choir, directed by Kristen Albert. Premiered on February 14, 2010, at Immaculata University.

2009

Tangled/Triangle (clarinet, violin, cello)
Composed for the Network for New Music as a sound/art collaboration with painter Becca Burrow. Premiered and recorded March 19 at the Gates Recital Hall, West Chester University by Arne Running, Marc Roveti and Michal Schmidt.
<a href="http://melissadunphy.bandcamp.com/album/tangled-triangle">Tangled/Triangle (1) by Melissa Dunphy</a>
Video
  Rhapsody on a Fragment (electric cello, delay)
Performed by Ovidiu Marinescu, February 6, 2009, at Gates Recital Hall, West Chester University.
Video
2008 Insects (electroacoustic)
Performed February 6, 2009, at Gates Recital Hall, West Chester University.
Selected for performance in the Electro-Acoustic Jukebox, November 13 & 14, 2009, FEASt Festival, Florida International University.
Selected for performance in the Beauty, Horror and Silence Festival, December 5, 2009, Harold Golen Gallery, Florida.
Audio
 

The Gonzales Cantata (SSAT choir, string ensemble/quartet, harpsichord)
A cantata based on the Senate Judiciary Committee hearings of former Attorney-General Alberto Gonzales.
Selections performed January 31, 2008, at Gates Recital Hall, West Chester University.
Performed February 6, 2009, at Gates Recital Hall, West Chester University.
Performed September 3-6, 2009, in the Philadelphia Fringe Festival, at the Rotunda (Sanctuary), Philadelphia.
Featured on MSNBC's The Rachel Maddow Show, September 3 & September 11, 2009.
<a href="http://melissadunphy.bandcamp.com/album/the-gonzales-cantata">Freedom Overture by Melissa Dunphy</a>
Official website with audio and video
 

Handshake: A Scherzo (soprano, flute, clarinet, violin, cello, piano, percussion)
A setting of the Lorem Ipsum
Performed February 6, 2009, at Gates Recital Hall, West Chester University.
<a href="http://melissadunphy.bandcamp.com/track/handshake-a-scherzo">handshake: a scherzo by Melissa Dunphy</a>

 

Black Thunder (baritone, violin, cello and piano)
Composed for Network for New Music. Premiered and recorded January 16 at the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia by Randall Scarlata, Paul Arnold, James Cooper III and Linda Reichert.
Selected for Honorable Mention in the ASCAP/Lotte Lehmann Foundation 2009 Art Song Competition.
<a href="http://melissadunphy.bandcamp.com/track/black-thunder">Black Thunder by Melissa Dunphy</a>

2007 Circadia (orchestra)
Read by West Chester Symphony Orchestra December 4
  The Children's Hour (flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon)
 

L'Homme Arme (French horn, clarinet, theremin, voice, cello and tape)
Premiered October 25 at Gates Recital Hall, West Chester University. Selected for presentation at the SEAMUS 2008 National Conference.
Video

  Dissociative Fugue (string trio)
Recorded by the Lyric String Quartet, West Chester University.
2006

The Frail Variations (cello and piano)
Recorded by Ioana Velicu and Melissa Dunphy, West Chester University
Video | Audio

 

Songs for Ophelia (solo voice)
Composed for Hamlet, produced by Gamut Theatre
2005 Incidental music for The Glass Menagerie (solo violin and chimes)
Composed for Gamut Theatre
2004 Incidental music for A Midsummer Night's Dream (four voices, violin, saxophone, guitar, and piano)
Composed for Harrisburg Shakespeare Festival
2000 The Closer Madrigal (SATB chamber choir)
Composed for University of New South Wales Med Revue
Audio
1996 She Walks in Beauty (six voices)
  No, Brian! (three female voices, piano, violin)
  Leda and the Swan (two voices, oboe, piano)