On November 18th, I introduced you to Marcel van Garderen who started with WORKSHOP8 in September. Melissa McGinley started just a week later on October 9th and she is our little lucky charm. Read on to learn more about just what a rock-star she really is!
Melissa sent me her resume in May when I first started thinking of bringing someone on to take over the studio and marketing management role I had filled for 13 years. It was September before I was actually ready to make an offer. Melissa’s resume had stuck with me because she wrote a great cover letter, had a graphic flair, and—like me—she is an artist at heart. We were lucky that even though it took me four months to offer her a job, she was ready and willing to join our team, allowing me to take on the role of Creative Director and do more schmoozing.
A violinist since the age of four, Melissa has played on stages with symphonies, bluegrass, hip-hop, jazz, latin, and rock projects. Before moving to Colorado in the fall of 2013, Melissa spent six years touring the US with a funk/rock duo, performing over 200 shows each year.
In addition to playing acoustic violin, she also plays 5-string electric violin (she is an NS Design artist), drums, and she sings.
In addition to helping WORKSHOP8 keep the studio organized, managing our opportunities, writing proposals, and working on marketing, Melissa manages to maintain a rigorous performance schedule (www.melissamcginley.com) and performs with The Longest Day of the Year, Pika, and has a solo project that is complete with homemade floor-stompy-triggers and an analog drum synth. She swears it is exciting and awesome, but I haven’t gotten to see that yet.
Spending hours of her childhood standing in wood shavings in front of her own workbench and doodling on her dad’s drafting table, as the daughter of a sculptor, Melissa has always had a love for visual art as well. While majoring in classical violin performance at Indiana University, she also studied graphic design. This came in handy; in addition to singing and playing drums and electric violin on tour, she designed and screen printed the band’s t-shirts, designed album packaging, tour flyers, websites, foam fingers, and other less thrilling promo material. She also ran national radio campaigns and did the PR for the band’s tours.
After leaving the van life behind, Melissa relocated from Asheville, NC to Boulder, where she happily lives with her rescue pibble, Leo, and enjoys running or biking to the WORKSHOP8 office on mornings she hasn’t been out late playing music the night before. She loves listening to vinyl soul/funk records, cheers for the Pittsburgh Steelers, and enjoys sewing.
And, her impressive vintage beer can collection is a sight to behold.
