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[The Gonzales Cantata] is honestly, probably the coolest thing you've ever seen on this show. I know. I'm totally freaking out about it ... I spent all day obsessing about this, and watching clips of it online, and listening to the music, and I have to tell you, in my opinion, it is both great and kind of moving ... this is so cool, I could not contain myself.
— Rachel Maddow, The Rachel Maddow Show
One of the highlights of my attending the 2019 National Conference of the American Choral Directors Association in Kansas City was encountering Melissa Dunphy during the Composer Fair at the end of the first full day of the conference. Dunphy was full of energy and passionate about what she does and was also incredibly articulate—an ideal candidate for a NewMusicBox Cover!
— New Music Box
Melissa Dunphy's mission as a composer is just as much political as it is artistic.
Composer Melissa Dunphy is particularly savvy about promoting her music. "I think of my compositions like they’re my children and I want my child to succeed."
"Fully half the concert was devoted to a new cantata by Melissa Dunphy based on the prose and poetry of immigrant Americans, all undocumented and brought to the United States as children. All are Dreamers. All are stateless. Whatever our political views on the subject, this is an issue that screams for a resolution. This concert was a plea for understanding."
— KC Arts Beat
"[Melissa] Dunphy’s works are always among the emotional and musical high points of Resonance’s concerts, and this two-movement composition was one of the triggers [Resonance Artistic Director Katherine] FitzGibbon warned us about."
— Oregon Arts Watch
"Melissa Dunphy’s subtle sound design greatly enhances the production."
— WHYY
Speaking of both the theatre building and her career, [Dunphy] says, “You take a chance and go where your passions lead and, suddenly, you’re living an adventure.”
— West Chester University Magazine
Melissa and Matt Dunphy's kitchen is filled with historical artifacts, including ceramics and glass, dating back to the time of the Revolutionary War. Melissa and Matt found them right underneath their property in the Northern Liberties section of Philadelphia.
— ABC Localish
"It’s very inspiring and powerful, and it gives us an opportunity to share the stories of these five people,” [Matthew] Creek said. “It’s an opportunity to bring awareness and inspire hope that this country is a home for everyone and that immigrants are welcome.”
— Indiana Daily Student
"[Melissa Dunphy's] work had life and energy and feisty passion, and I wanted to program it all! Besides being an award-winning composer, Melissa herself is an amazing soul, and is the embodiment of the creative artist I want my students to know exists as a role model.
— Choral Net
Dunphy’s music flowed gracefully from sorrow to joy to terror, hints of the U.S. national anthem (that iconic descending trumpet call) turning sour and grief-stricken. Whenever the music was not itself outright provocative, it was transparent to let the text’s poignancy come through and do the challenging.
SLCC composer-in-residence Melissa Dunphy concluded her term with this concert and the world premiere of “Suite Remembrance.” [...] The result is engaging, ranging from the melancholy to the sprightly
— St Louis Post-Dispatch
[Hervararkvida]’s stunning instrumentation gives voice to a journey unlike any other. The mezzo-soprano sings the gender-bending role of Hervor/Hervarth, accompanied by a Hardanger fiddle-style violin part and a harp part that extends the instrument from sounds reminiscent of a bardic lyre to frightening spectral noises created by all manner of extended technique...
— WOSU Public Media
Though only around five minutes in length, Scallops and Bollocks for Tea from Australian Melissa Dunphy was the most fascinating piece on the program. It combines musical history, virtuosic writing for the violin soloist (Alex Granger), and aspects of video game lore.
— San Francisco Classical Voice
"It's heartbreaking and infuriating and frustrating to me as an Australian who feels like there has to be an easier answer."
— The Australian
The score by Dunphy requires the soprano to perform across a very wide range, and she does so with aplomb. The concept might seem a bit unusual, but it succeeds, and it manages to carry some emotional weight as well.
— Broadway World
...the loudest and longest applause of the afternoon went to Britten’s atmospheric, harmonically rich and technically interesting “Advance, Democracy” and Melissa Dunphy’s setting of, of all things, public testimony given by Philip Spooner before the state of Maine in 2009 regarding the Marriage Equality Bill.
— St. Louis Post-Dispatch
“[What do you think I fought for at Omaha Beach?] is an extraordinarily powerful piece,” said Saint Louis Chamber Chorus Artistic Director Philip Barnes. “I think it is way up there in the traditions of Copland or Roy Harris.”
— KWMU St. Louis Public Radio
[Composer-in-residence Melissa Dunphy's] “The Day of Resurrection” is written for double choir, a Chamber Chorus specialty, with liturgical echoes. Written mostly in 7/8 time, the music has an urgency that reflects the triumphal theme of the words. The new piece is a winner, and the choir gave it a superb performance.
“I admire her writing,” Barnes says of Dunphy. “I think she has a very original mind. She’s an exuberant personality, but she’s very disciplined, and she writes exceedingly clearly.”
Melissa Dunphy's O Oriens (O Morning Star) offered no gimmicks - just a model of sincerity, beautiful harmonic changes, and a great sensitivity to pitches and phrases that fall naturally on the human voice.
— Philadelphia Inquirer
The new composer-in-residence, Melissa Dunphy, contributed a new song, “Alpha and Omega.” For two choirs, it effectively juxtaposes texts from “The Pilgrim’s Progress” and the Book of Revelation, in a solidly written piece of choral writing.
“I perform [What do you think I fought for at Omaha Beach?] because I think first and foremost it’s a wonderful piece of music,” Barnes said. “And I was very gratified that people of persuasions, of different points of view on the argument, came together and said, ‘this is worth doing, this piece, because its musical value is so high.’”
Revolution Shakespeare's lively, tuneful – and free – production of Shakespeare's early comedy brims with romance, enthusiasm, and cleverness [...] Melissa Dunphy's pop compositions transform monologues into love songs, arguments into duets – and, yes, we're invited to sing along at times.
— Philadelphia CityPaper
Philadelphia, PA melissa@mormolyke.com 717-214-6121
