In the 2019-2020 season, Indian-American soprano Melissa Sondhi made her debut with Opera San Jose, covering the roles of Ida in Die Fledermaus and the Dew Fairy in Hansel and Gretel, and was planning on returning this past spring to cover the role of Papagena in Die Zauberflöte, but the production was rescheduled for a future date due to COVID-19. In the 2020-2021 season, she was also set to sing the role of Barbarina and cover the role of Susanna in their new production of Le nozze di Figaro, which will be set in colonial India during Victorian Imperial rule and has also been rescheduled for a future date. She also performed the roles of Le feu and Le rossignol in L’enfant et les sortilèges with Air Opera Collective this past February. In the 2018-2019 season, she was seen as Giannetta in The Elixir of Love with Pocket Opera, Edith in The Pirates of Penzance, and Fiametta in The Gondoliers with Lamplighters Music Theatre. ​In 2017, she was a finalist at the East Bay Opera League’s Young Artists Scholarship Awards Competition. In both 2014 and 2016, she was an Apprentice Artist with the Miami Music Festival where she was seen as Papagena in Die Zauberflöte and La princesse in L’enfant et les sortilèges. In 2013, she was a participant in the Bel Canto Institute in Florence, Italy, where she received bel canto training from the esteemed Jane Klaviter.

Other role engagements have included the title role of Gretel in Hänsel und Gretel, Parasha in Mavra, Maria Bertram in the West Coast premiere of Mansfield Park, and Sister Catherine in Dead Man Walking. Melissa holds a BM from the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre & Dance (2015), and an MM from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music (2017). She is a student of Jane Randolph.