Melissa Ferlaak

Melissa Ferlaak
Melissa Marie Ferlaak (born April 26, 1979) is an American mezzo and full lyric soprano from Cottage Grove, Minnesota, and has a vocal range of eight octaves. She has a very beautiful and characteristic colour of voice. She is best known as former singer for symphonic metal bands Aesma Daeva, Visions of Atlantis and Echoterra. She is now current singer of her new female-fronted doom/death metal project Plague of Stars and ambient band MY Eternel with Voa Voxyd. Throughout her career, she has guest appeared with other bands such as Withering Soul, Beto Vazquez Infinity, Rising Dream, Adyta and Voidwork.

Early life
Born in Cottage Grove, Minnesota. Melissa hold a Master’s degree from New England Conservatory in Boston in Vocal Performance and a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Wisconsin-River Falls in Music with an emphasis on classical and operatic technique. After graduation from university, she became a professional opera singer.

Musical career
Melissa Ferlaak began her musical career when she started to sing in classical concerts, in 1999, as a university musical student. She joined American symphonic metal band Aesma Daeva in 2002. She played gigs in Mexico, the US and Canada. With her career with Aesma Daeva, they have recorded two albums and one EP, The Eros of Frigid Beauty, The New Athens Ethos, and Ex Libris EP. On October 11, 2005, the band announced that singer Melissa Ferlaak was leaving to join the Austrian band Visions of Atlantis, in 2006. Her final show with Aesma Daeva was in December 2005, at the Star Central club in Minnesota. The concert was filmed for the DVD, "Last Rites", and it was released on March 2007.

While singing with Aesma Daeva, Melissa was looking for change into her career, until a friend from the band Melechesh wanted to help, he got her in contact with record label Napalm Records, and then joined as new vocalist for Austrian symphonic power metal band Visions of Atlantis, in 2006, after their original singer Nicole Bogner departed from the band to pursue commitments elsewhere. In early 2006 to early 2007, Vision of Atlantis did a short tour with Melissa. With Melissa, the band recorded their 3rd new album Trinity, released on May 25, 2007, and began a tour through Europe, China, and the U.S.. On November 28, 2007, a message was posted on the official VoA website saying that Melissa Ferlaak parted ways with the band citing personal reasons.

In 2006, Melissa auditioned for American Idol, performing Visions of Atlantis song "Flow this Desert.

In late 2009, she joined Minneapolis band, Echoterra after their original singer Suvi Virtanen had departed. With Melissa in Echoterra, the band recorded their new EP "In Your Eyes" which was released with newly remastered songs in January 19, 2009, and the began to perform regularly. In 2011, the band went back into studio and started recording a new album called "Land of The Midnight Sun," and was released on October 17, 2011 through Blinding Force Recordings. On March 13, 2012, Melissa left Echoterra due to creative and personal differences.

Melissa started a new band in 2012 with Will Maravelas (We Are Legion), Aaron Lanik (We Are Legion), and Chris Quinn (Aesma Daeva) called Plague of Stars. The quartet released two songs in October 2012 as a teaser for their full album to come in June 2013.

In March 2013, Melissa started making music with VoA Voxyd from Ad Inferna. The two have since started their new project MY Eternel, releasing songs on their facebook page.

Other than singing, Melissa is currently now giving vocal lessons and works at the Hennepin Theatre Trust as a director of Education and Community Engagement. She has performed classically with such companies as Theater Latte Da, Coro!, Thursday Musical and the Schubert Club.

With Aesma Daeva

 * The Eros of Frigid Beauty (2002)
 * The New Athens Ethos (2003)

With Visions of Atlantis

 * Trinity (2007)

With Adyta

 * Rose of Melancholy (2009)
 * Katarsis (2011)

With Echoterra

 * In Your Eyes (EP) (2010)
 * Land of the Midnight Sun (2011)