As the 2005 National Federation of Music Clubs Young Artist Winner in Woman’s Voice, 2005 Metropolitan Opera District Winner and Mid-South Regional Finalist, 2006 International Opera Singer Competition Finalist, 2007 Gerda Lissner Foundation Competition Career Encouragement Grant Winner , a 2007 Career Bridges Grant Awards Finalist with the Schuyler Foundation for Career Bridges, Inc., and Rosenblatt Award winner of the 2006 Connecticut Opera Guild Young Artist Competition, Mela (mee-la) Dailey has command of both her instrument and the stage. Ms. Dailey has received recognition in a wide variety of musical genres including opera, oratorio, art song, musical theater, vocal jazz, gospel, country, and popular music. Ms. Dailey made her professional debut at Carnegie Hall in 2003 with the Grammy nominated Conspirare Company of Voices directed by Craig Hella Johnson, a group with whom she also recorded CDs at Skywalker Ranch in California and Troy Savings Bank in New York for national release on the Clarion label She has been a recipient of the New York University Talent Scholarship for achievement in musical theater, a winner of the Second Annual University of Texas Opera Gala Aria Competition, and was selected as a New Young Artist with the Victoria Bach Festival.

Engagements for the 2005-2006 season included performances of the role of Ines in Il Trovatore with Austin Lyric Opera, Adina in L’Elisir d’Amore with the Opera Company of Brooklyn, Handel’s Messiah with the Austin Symphony, Handel’s Samson with Chorus Austin, and opera galas with Austin Lyric Opera and the Britt Festival in Oregon. Other recent appearances include concerts with the Puigcerda Festival in Spain.

For the 2006-2007 season, Ms. Dailey sings the title role of Semele at the Staunton Music Festival and Musetta with the Opera Company of Brooklyn. She is Artist-in-Residence with the Amarillo Opera, and is heard in recital in Minneapolis, Louisville, Lexington, Roanoke, and San Antonio She performs in concert with the Carinthian Symphony Orchestra of Klagenfurt, Austria and sings scenes from Don Giovanni, Die Lustige Witwe and Die Fledermaus with the Wichita Falls Symphony Orchestra in Texas as well as La Traviata, Rigoletto, La Boheme, Die Fledermaus, and The Tales of Hoffmann in an Austin Lyric Opera Gala. She returns to the Austin Symphony for Handel’s Messiah and Chorus Austin for Bach’s Magnificat and Schubert’s Mass in A-flat.

For 2007-2008 she will appear as Ida (and covering Adele) with Austin Lyric Opera’s Die Fledermaus and Frasquita in Carmen with the Amarillo Opera. She will be heard in recitals with pianists Anton Nel and Rick Rowley and with the Austin Symphony singing the role of Sophie in the Act 3 Trio and Finale from Der Rosenkavalier. In July of 2008 Ms. Dailey is looking forward to premiered four pieces written for her by composer Dan Welcher entitled Four Personal Ads with the Austin Chamber Music Festival. In 2008 Ms. Dailey will join tenor Robert White, composer Lowell Liebermann, soprano Martina Arroyo, violinist Timothy Fain, pianist William Hobbs, cellist Scott Kluksdahl, and flutist Marya Martin to perform in the Mediterranean Music Festival aboard Corinthian II starting in Athens and finishing in Venice. Her 2009-2010 engagements include performances of Rigoletto with Austin Lyric Opera and orchestral concerts performing scenes from La Boheme, La Traviata, L’Elisir d’Amore, and West Side Story with the Rochester Philharmonic and Witchita Falls Symphony. Ms. Dailey will be performing several concerts around the US with cellist Scott Kluksdahl beginning with the Helps Festival of Music in Tampa. The program will be recorded for commercial release in the summer of 2010 and will include the Bachianas Brasileira No. 5 of Heitor Villa-Lobos for soprano and eight celli and John Taverner\'s Akhmatova Songs. Adding to her operatic repertoire, Mela will be singing the role of Tina in Jonathan Dove\'s opera Flight with Austin Lyric Opera in the spring of 2011. In addition, Ms. Dailey will perform a series of jazz concerts in Austria and make her debut with the Dallas Wind Symphony, Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, and the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra.