Melanie Rucinski, Accompanist

Melanie Rucinski is a freelance pianist based in the Boston area. She has recently performed with the Cambridge Community Chorus, where she was interim accompanist during the 2023-24 season, NEMPAC Opera Project, and Metropolitan Chorale. Previously, Melanie was a collaborative pianist with the Boston Children’s Chorus, Promenade Opera Project, and the A.R.T. Institute for Advanced Theater Training. Melanie has worked with Opera on Tap and La Ti Do Cabaret in Washington, D.C., where she also played for the world premier of the comic opera Do Not Disturb at the 2016 Capital Fringe Festival. If you look closely, you can catch her playing piano at the middle school graduation in Defending Jacob on Apple TV.

As an undergraduate, Melanie music directed productions of Next to Normal and The Last Five Years. A choral singer and erstwhile oboist, she cofounded and conducted the Lambda Singers chamber choir at Harvard College and played oboe with the Harvard Radcliffe Orchestra, Harvard College Opera Society, and Harvard Early Music Society.

Melanie is currently the accompanist for the Jameson Singers, in which she also sings. Outside of her musical career, Melanie is a Lecturer at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. She holds a BA in Social Studies from Harvard College and a PhD in Public Policy from the Harvard Kennedy School.