Melanie Scholtz is a South African born, multi award winning jazz singer and composer.

She started playing the piano at the age of 5 and went on to study Opera at The University of Cape Town Opera School where she graduated Cum Laude with a Performer’s Diploma in Opera in 2000.

She has released five successful solo albums and has won many awards; In 2010, Melanie was named the Standard Bank Young Artist for Jazz and In 2012, and won all three prizes at the prestigious Jazz Revelations competition as part of the Jazz a Juan Festival in Nice, France.

Melanie was also chosen to be a featured artist in The Great South African Songbook Tour from September 2019-Feb 2020 with Wynton Marsalis and The Jazz at Lincoln Centre. She was featured in New York , Chicago, Johannesburg and Vienna.

Her collaboration with Anti Apartheid activist and poet James Matthews called Freedom’s Child, brought to light the struggles of Apartheid and how by fusing music with these iconic poems, helped them reach a new generation of South Africans.

Melanie has performed all over the world including her native country, South Africa, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Germany, France, Italy, Norway, Sweden and the United States.
She has performed alongside Kurt Elling at the Joy of Jazz festival in Johannesburg in 2012, with the Cape Town Philharmonic alongside the late Hugh Masekela in 2015 and also jammed alongside Bobby McFerrin at the Anjazz Jazz
festival in Norway in 2011.

She recently collaborated alongside Christian McBride in June 2024 as part of the Discover Music series at 92 NY in New York City.

She released a new bass and voice record with Norwegian bass player Jo Fougner Skaansar, called Kindred, under the Grappa label in Feb 2022. Melanie is also a guest vocalist and songwriter with the world music band , Nation Beat , who released their new record , under Ropeadope records June 15 at Joe’s Pub in New York City.

Melanie has recorded the first of 2 new solo albums in 2024  and has been signed to
The Ropeadope, AfrikArise label. The first, entitled Sweet Nancy , with the great Nancy Wilson as a muse, was recorded in the birthplace of jazz,  New Orleans in February 2022. The album is co produced by drummer and Executive Director of the Nocca Foundation, Adonis Rose, and is set to be released in  February 2025.
The second of the two new albums was recorded in Johannesburg with Melanie’s original trio , featuring and produced by fellow Standard Bank Young Artist winner , Bokani Dyer and features another Young Artist winner , Benjamin Jephta on bass and Marlon Witbooi on drums.

Besides being a seasoned performer in multiple genres, Melanie has been involved in the National Arts Festival in Grahamstown, South Africa  from 2008 - 2014 as a performer and teacher as well as part of the mentorship program with the Artscape Youth Jazz program from 2006- 2013.
She also went on to teach at the University of Cape Town from 2004-2005.
She has taught internationally at annual Jazz Camps in The Czech Republic , where she lived for 2 years.  She currently resides in Brooklyn, New York and is a permanent member of the vocal teaching staff at the 92 NY school of music for the past 7 years. She also gives workshops and develops curriculum  for the 92NY School Engagement in Visual Art , Songwriting and Music Production as a teaching artist. Melanie has
developed curriculum for the 92 NY School Engagement ranging from in person workshops for dancers using the Voice Jam app in order to create their own music for their choreography. She has also worked remotely during the pandemic developing a digital art and music song writing program called Pocket Canvas also for the 92 NY School Engagement. Melanie has since worked with New Mexico Faces and finished two commissioned art books for the organization called, Art on your sleeve, an analogue collage book for grades 2-5 and a book on digital art and music production called Pocket Canvas, based on her curriculum for the 92 NY School Engagement.

She is also frequently invited by Jazz at Lincoln Centre as a featured singer/ musician giving workshops for conferences and events.

She has also hosted workshops showcasing Music Production , Electronic Looping , Visual Art , Improvisation at CUNY , University of Pennsylvania and Smith College.

Her visual arts persona , The Silver Lining Activist, was born out of her move to New York City in 2017 and living in the very arty and punky East Village. Influenced by Basquiat, Warhol, Haring and so many of the greats who lived on her block , mixed media collage , analogue and now digital, became her main tangible artistic expression. A strong feminist and African slant can be found as main characteristics of her work, paying homage to her African Heritage as well as the people of the indigenous diaspora.

Melanie is also a South African Junior Champion in Ballroom and danced Latin and Ballroom for more than 10 years.
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