Rachel Tedder holds a Masters in Vocal Performance from James Madison University in Harrisonburg, VA, USA. After completing her degree, she began teaching voice and directing the women's a cappella group Baldwin Charm at Mary Baldwin University in Staunton, VA, a job that let her combine her passion for classical vocal music and pop a cappella, as well as develop her skills as a vocal arranger.
In musical gala shows on tour around Germany she has also portrayed roles such as Elisabeth from Elisabeth, Elphaba from Wicked, Evita from Evita, and Mrs. Danvers from Rebecca.
As a classical soloist, Rachel has sung roles including Contessa in Le nozze did Figaro, Suor Genevieve and La Maestra della Novizie in Suor Angelica, and Siébel in Faust, in addition to concerts and other solo appearances.
As a musical singer, Rachel has played roles such as Marguerite in The Scarlet Pimpernel and Dido in The Ballad of Dido (which she also composed). At the moment you can hear her as Mrs. Hudson in Das Sherlock Musical and as Elsie in All You Need is Cheese at Urania Theater in Cologne
After moving to Germany in 2013, she founded operAcappella in 2014 with Bethany Barber. She is the group's music director and writes many of their arrangements and sings alto/mezzo.
Arno Bovensmann studied singing at the Folkwang University in Essen. During his studies, engagements took him across Germany and Europe. In 2002 he was the soloist of the opening production of the Ruhrtriennale, Deutschland, deine Lieder. After winning an opera competition, he was one of the youngest singers in Die Zauberflöte at the Haldenstein Castle Opera in summer 2003. Further productions at various festivals (Lincoln Center Festival, New York; Ruhr Festival Recklinghausen) and theaters followed.
As a concert soloist, he has worked with various national and international ensembles, including the Orchester de Chambre de Metz, the Bochum Symphony Orchestra, and the Graubünden Chamber Philharmonic Orchestra, directed by Marcus Bosch.His repertoire includes Schubert's Die Winterreise and Die Schöne Müllerin as well as numerous cantatas, masses and oratorios by Johann Sebastian Bach, W. A. Mozart, and others.
Along with swing and musical theater songs, he also performs modern opera such as The Edelweiss Pirates by Snezana Nesic, The Soldiers by Bernd Alois Zimmermann, and The Dictator by Ernst Krenek.
Arno has been a permanent member of operAcappella since 2015.
In his youth, Thomas Melcher studied piano with Prof. Boguslaw Strobel and his wife Maria Strobel. He also received lessons in composition from Dr. Critical and in the jazz piano by Tea-Sung Chung.
At almost 20 years of age, he began to study acting at the Arturo Schauspielschule in Cologne. He was involved in productions at the Arturo Schauspielschule and other institutions as musical director, accompanist, vocal coach, and composer.
His education has been as diverse as his didactic and artistic work. He studied piano with concert pianist Gabriella Brezoczki and voice with Prof. Arthur Janzen, Hartmut Singer, Betty Striewe, and Kurt Moll. In 2008, he began studying vocal pedagogy and performance and secondary piano at the Cologne Hochschule für Musik und Tanz under Martin Lindsay. He graduated with a BM in vocal pedagogy and performance.
Thomas has been living in Essen since 2014 and teaches voice, piano, music theory, and voice therapy at his private music school Musik-Melcher. He has conducted the choir Heiligenhaus Frohsinn since October 2016 and has been a member of operAcappella since 2019.
Stella studied classical singing at the ArtEZ Institute of the Arts with soprano Claudia Patacca and pianist Marien van Nieukerken. There, she participated in masterclasses with artists such as Elly Ameling, Barbara Hannigan, The King’s Singers, Magreet Honig, Olaf Bär, Noelle Turner and Wolfgang Klose.
Since completing her Bachelor of Music, Stella has gained international experience as a soloist in a wide variety of projects. In addition to classical opera and operetta roles such as Despina, Zerlina, and Susanna in W. A. Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro, her repertoire includes unusual works such as Eva in Tonight: Lola Blau by G. Kreisler; the narrator in S. Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf; and the Reader/Princess in I. Stravinsky’s The Soldier's Tale. Stella has also appeared as the soprano soloist in Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater and in G. F. Handel’s Messiah, among others.
She founded the quartet “Stella!” with accordionist Marko Kassl (Düsseldorf), bassist Lito Mabjaia (Amsterdam), and percussionist Danny Rombout (Rotterdam). In addition to classical repertoire, they create new versions of chanson and the theater classics of Brecht/Weill and Eisler. In March 2015, they won the Grand Prix Alliance Francaise at the Concours de la Chanson in The Hague, Netherlands. The quartet has toured Germany, the Netherlands, and France and released their first CD, Bisou de Stella, during the lockdown in early 2020.
Stella joined operAcappella in 2021.