Description
Melanie Scholtz is a South African born, multi award winning jazz singer, composer and educator.
She started playing the piano from 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 – February 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 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 has also guested alongside Christian McBride and his trio for the 92 NY’s Discover Music Program in 2024.
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 on Ropeadope on June 15 at Joe’s pub in New York City.
Melanie has recorded the first of 2 new solo albums. The first, entitled Sweet Nancy, with the great Nancy Wilson as a muse, was recorded in the birthplace of jazz, New Orleans in February 2023. The album is co-produced by artistic director and drummer Adonis Rose, and is set to be released in September 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.