Melissa Cummins

Melissa Cummins, PhD, is an Adjunct Professor of Musicology at the School of Music, Sam Houston State University. Her research focuses on French Opera, Women composers in Opera and Musical Theater, and Twentieth-Century music. She has written extensively on composers such as Ethel Smyth, Francesca Caccini, and Germaine Tailleferre, and directed the American premiere of Tailleferre’s Monsieur Petitpois achète un Château in 2016.

Educational Background:

• BS in Music Education from Northwest Missouri State University (1989)
• ME in Instrumental Music Education from Southeast Missouri State University (1994)
• MM in Musicology from the University of South Dakota (2014)
• PhD in Musicology from the University of Kansas (2017)

Prior to her academic career, Cummins spent 22 years as a public school band director in Missouri. She has taught music history courses at Southeast Missouri State University, Western Iowa Tech Community College, the University of South Dakota, and the University of Kansas. She is also active as a woodwind doubler in pit orchestras and serves as a woodwind judge in Missouri and Kansas.