Melissa Forbes

Melissa is Associate Professor in Contemporary Singing at the University of Southern Queensland (UniSQ), Australia. Melissa is a singing practitioner-researcher who researches the lived experience of singing across a broad range of contexts, from elite, professional singers to community groups. Informed by positive psychology, her research uses "Big Q", fully qualitative methods to position singing as a unique health and wellbeing practice for everyone.

Melissa has published scholarly journal articles and book chapters on topics related to music education and singing and health and wellbeing. She writes for The Conversation and is the co-editor of Australian Voice, the scholarly journal for the Australian National Association of Teachers of Singing. She is an Academic Editor for PLOS One.

In recognition of her contributions as an educational leader, she was made a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (UK) in 2021.

Melissa became a Churchill Fellow in 2010 which enabled her to travel to the USA in 2011 where she studied with leading contemporary singing pedagogues Jeanie LoVetri and Robert Edwin. Melissa is certified Levels I, II and III in Somatic Voicework(TM) The LoVetri Method. In 2017 and 2019 Melissa hosted master singing teacher Jeannette LoVetri at the University of Southern Queensland where The LoVetri Institute was attended by over 70 singing teachers from across Australia, New Zealand and South-East Asia.

Since 2017, Melissa has worked with Park n Songs, a health and wellbeing singing group for people with Parkinson's and their carers. She feels priviledged to have witnessed the power of music to positively impact the lives of those struggling with this debilitating, as-yet uncurable disease. In 2022, she received the UniSQ Vice-Chancellor's Award for Community Engagement and service for her work with Park n Songs.

Melissa is currently writing a book manuscript for Routledge with the working title, "The Positive Musician: Leading Self and Others to Flourish Through Music", due for release late 2025.