Biography

At Just 28 years old, Melinda Rose Rodriguez has made a name for herself in the jazz world. Melinda attended The New England Conservatory of music when first beginning her professional music career. Since High School, she has been a 4-time Downbeat Music Award winner and a two-time YoungArts winner. She has played at a number of festivals including The Miami Downtown Jazz Festival and The Litchfield Jazz Festival, and has traveled as far as Bermuda and Japan to perform in other festivals. Melinda has traveled to perform alongside Michael Feinstein, Fred Hersch, Cyrille Aimee, Jane Monheit and worked frequently with jazz greats such as Kevin Mahogany. Melinda is a recent 1st place winner in the International Ella Fitzgerald Jazz Vocal Competition which took place in Washington DC in early 2019. Melinda also recently debuted with the Legendary Count Basie Jazz Orchestra in 2019. She spent 2018-20 as a teaching artist at The University of Illinois, Millikin University and Illinois Wesleyan University all while pursuing her Masters degree in performance. 2020 showed promise for Melinda as she debuted at legendary clubs across the country such as Birdland Jazz Club in New York City and Andy's Jazz Club in the heart of Chicago, IL. She was also the winner of the Ben Tucker Jazz Award and Johnny Mercer Award in the prestigious American Traditions Vocal Competition held annually in Savannah, GA. Melinda Rodriguez was most recently a contestant on Season 17 of NBC's hit singing show, The Voice where she worked closely with Kelly Clarkson. Upon re-entering a post-covid world, Melinda was the recent People's Choice Award winner in the 2022 American Traditions Vocal competition and debuted with The Asheville Symphony Orchestra in late April 2022. As of 2023, Melinda was selected as the first ever commercial vocalist of the US Army Blues Big Band in Washington, DC. She is the first singer to ever serve this element of The United States Army Band in its 51 year existence. Ms. Rose recently competed in the 2024 American Traditions Vocal Competition where she she placed 4th. In June 2023, Melinda recorded her debut album, I'm On My Way, featuring original compositions and standard repertoire. The album is set to release Mid 2024.