Mel McMurrin

Mel McMurrin began his solo singing career in Chicago at age two singing "We Shall Overcome" in churches and has been singing ever since, covering a wide variety of styles from jazz (opening for George Benson with the a capella sextet Corner Market); Indian style (in San Francisco Shakespeare Festival's As You Like It); classical (as Figaro in a PBS national broadcast of Mozart's opera) and avant-garde (with George Coates Performance Works.) He has recorded with Ray Lynch (Windham Hill,) The Bobs (Rounder Records,) The Choir at St. Ignatius (Music and Arts,) The Bungee Jumpin’ Cows and Jaya. A veteran jingle singer in the San Francisco Bay area, Mel has recorded commercials for Nations Hamburgers, Sun Microsystems, Luckys, Glidden, Harvey’s Casinos and others in studios like, Green Street Music, Michael Boyd Music, Ed Bogus Productions and Bongo Bob Productions. His malleable voice has found it’s way on to a number of video/computer games including Sony’s Twisted Metal, and Cool Borders, Konami’s NHL:Blades of Steel, LucasArts’ Mortimer and the Riddles of the Medallion (for which he also co-wrote the music) and Brøderbund’s Where inTime is Carman San Diego? He has done commercial voice-over for Schwab, Novell, Gallo, Lincoln-Mercury, Siemans and dozens of others and was a morning-drive radio host for then country-gospel format, KASA in Phoenix. He racked up over a 1000 performances touring schools with Berkeley’s Science Discovery Theater, in 8 different shows, for which he also composed original music. Mel has also composed show music for Dole Foods (5 a Day Live), and Iomega (Comdex.) Featured Musical-theater roles include: Ala Ben Azar in Aladdin with San Francisco Shakespeare Festival, San Francisco CA John Jasper in The Mystery of Edwin Drood, with Center Repertory, Walnut Creek CA. The Pirate King, Pirates of Penzance with Arizona Repertory, Phoenix, AZ. Sir in The Roar of the Greasepaint with Lyric Opera Theater, Tempe, AZ. Harry in Company with Quisisanna on Lake Kezar, ME. He has sung in the professional choruses of San Francisco Opera and San Francisco Symphony. His improvisational theater skills have landed him long engagements with Entrée To Murder, a popular murder mystery on San Francisco’s Fisherman’s Wharf, and the Lawrence Hall of Science’s Brainiacs (teaching highschoolers brain science via improv.) He has been a featured performer in trade show theatrical productions for Iomega (The Kenwood Group) and Ford Motor Company (Caribiner International.) Mel graduated cum laude from Arizona State University with a Bachelor of Music, and from the Bailie School of Broadcast. Acting/Monologue: Jeffrey Bihr Improvisation: BATS (Bay Area Theater Sports) Special skills include studying Spanish, French, German and Italian; being a competent guitarist, bassist and keyboard player; and athletics.