• Election 2020
  • News & Culture
    • Arts & Events
    • Great Reads
    • 50 Years of Atlanta Pride
    • Atlanta After Dark
    • Atlanta 500
    • Groundbreakers
    • Women Making a Mark
  • Food & Drink
    • Restaurant Reviews
    • 50 Best Tacos
    • 123 Things to Eat on Buford Highway
    • 75 Best Restaurants in Atlanta
    • 50 Best Bars
    • Best Barbecue
    • Best Breakfast
  • Home
    • Artists & Galleries
    • Design Advice
    • Design News
    • Gardens
    • Real Estate
    • Neighborhoods
    • Real Estate All-Stars
  • Life & Style
    • Style
    • School Guide
    • Health & Wellness
    • Top Doctors
    • Top Dentists
    • Sponsored: Physician & Dentist Profiles
  • Travel
    • Southbound
    • 50 Best Things to Do in Georgia
    • North Georgia Mountains
    • Wild Georgia
    • Great Georgia Hikes
    • Jekyll Island
    • Georgia Travel Guide
  • Best of Atlanta
    • Food & Drink
    • Arts & Culture
    • Beauty & Fitness
    • Style & Design
    • Work & Play
  • Magazine
    • Subscription Center
    • Newsletters
    • Digital Editions
    • About Us
    • Contact Us
    • Advertise
    • Custom Media
    • Give Atlanta
    • Events
      • Upcoming Events
      • Past Events
        • 2020 Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Designer Showhouse
        • Atlanta Baby and Beyond
        • Whiskey Festival
        • DINES: A Taste of the City’s Best Restaurants
        • 2019 Modern Style Showhome
        • Best Burger Battle
        • Pinewood Forest Idea Home
        • 2018 Modern Style Showhouses
      • Event Photos
    • Employment
      • Careers
      • Internships
    • Archives
    • Where to Find
Sign in
Welcome!Log into your account
Forgot your password?
Create an account
Privacy and Cookies Policy
Sign up
Welcome!Register for an account
A password will be e-mailed to you.
Privacy and Cookies Policy
Password recovery
Recover your password
Search
  • Subscribe
  • Subscriber Login
  • Newsletters
  • Issue Archive
  • Advertise
  • Contact Us
  • Atlanta 500
  • Give Atlanta
  • #OpenForBusiness
Sign in
Welcome! Log into your account
Forgot your password? Get help
Create an account
Privacy and Cookies Policy
Create an account
Welcome! Register for an account
A password will be e-mailed to you.
Privacy and Cookies Policy
Password recovery
Recover your password
A password will be e-mailed to you.
Atlanta Magazine Atlanta Magazine
Atlanta Magazine Atlanta Magazine
  • Election 2020
  • News & Culture
    • Arts & Events
    • Great Reads
    • 50 Years of Atlanta Pride
    • Atlanta After Dark
    • Atlanta 500
    • Groundbreakers
    • Women Making a Mark
  • Food & Drink
    • Restaurant Reviews
    • 50 Best Tacos
    • 123 Things to Eat on Buford Highway
    • 75 Best Restaurants in Atlanta
    • 50 Best Bars
    • Best Barbecue
    • Best Breakfast
  • Home
    • Artists & Galleries
    • Design Advice
    • Design News
    • Gardens
    • Real Estate
    • Neighborhoods
    • Real Estate All-Stars
  • Life & Style
    • Style
    • School Guide
    • Health & Wellness
    • Top Doctors
    • Top Dentists
    • Sponsored: Physician & Dentist Profiles
  • Travel
    • Southbound
    • 50 Best Things to Do in Georgia
    • North Georgia Mountains
    • Wild Georgia
    • Great Georgia Hikes
    • Jekyll Island
    • Georgia Travel Guide
  • Best of Atlanta
    • Food & Drink
    • Arts & Culture
    • Beauty & Fitness
    • Style & Design
    • Work & Play
  • Magazine
    • Subscription Center
    • Newsletters
    • Digital Editions
    • About Us
    • Contact Us
    • Advertise
    • Custom Media
    • Give Atlanta
    • Events
      • Upcoming Events
      • Past Events
        • 2020 Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Designer Showhouse
        • Atlanta Baby and Beyond
        • Whiskey Festival
        • DINES: A Taste of the City’s Best Restaurants
        • 2019 Modern Style Showhome
        • Best Burger Battle
        • Pinewood Forest Idea Home
        • 2018 Modern Style Showhouses
      • Event Photos
    • Employment
      • Careers
      • Internships
    • Archives
    • Where to Find
Home Women Making A Mark Melissa Arasi
Custom Publication

Melissa Arasi

A committed educator gives women a voice
By
Kelundra Smith
-
June 2, 2016
949
033116_2D6A0191_edit_RT

Photo by Audra Melton

When she was five, Melissa Arasi sang her first solo in her family’s Cherokee County church. By twenty-one, the vocalist was teaching chorus to students just a few years younger than she at Walton High School in Marietta. Soon came a stint under Robert Shaw in the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Chorus. It wasn’t long before Arasi was touring Europe and performing at Carnegie Hall. All the while, she maintained her work at Walton, even touring with her students in places like Paris’s Notre Dame.

In 2001, Arasi was tapped to supervise the Cobb County School District’s performing arts programs. It was a big opportunity, but it also meant she would be without a choir—which left her quite bereft. (“I cried for about two months every time I drove past the school,” she says.)

After earning her doctorate in music education from Georgia State University in 2006, Arasi knew she had to lead a chorus again. One day, she went on the Atlanta Gay Men’s Chorus website, and there it was: They were looking for a conductor to start a women’s chorus that would be their sister organization. “I looked at my husband and said, ‘This is my chorus! This is my chorus!’”

That was 2013. Today, Arasi, fifty, is artistic director of the Atlanta Women’s Chorus, a diverse group of about fifty-five women who give three concerts a year. Sure, there have been challenges in leading the nonprofit. For starters, she’s a straight woman leading a chorus that grew from the old Atlanta Feminist Women’s Chorus, a lesbian group. But Arasi has quickly won over any naysayers with her passion and charm. There’s also the juggle: She has the same day job at Cobb County Schools.

In fact, she’s nearing her thirtieth year with the county, where she supervises nearly 200 performing arts teachers. Arasi says she’s exhausted at the end of the day, but when she leads her chorus, she feels rejuvenated. “The interaction that happens is so unique and special that it’s really impossible to put into words,” she says. “It just feeds you.”

Advertisement
  • TAGS
  • Women Making A Mark 2016
Kelundra Smith

Follow Us

65,714FansLike
126,739FollowersFollow
493,957FollowersFollow

Newsletters

Popular posts

Sponsored Martin County, FL

7 ways to unwind in Martin County, Florida

April 15, 2018
U.S. Capitol innsurrection 1906 Atlanta Race Riots

To understand the mob violence at the U.S. Capitol, remember the 1906 Atlanta Race Riot

January 12, 2021
After Dark Atlantans: Trévon Williams

Trévon Williams knew Atlanta creatives wanted another way to party. So he created Vain.

September 19, 2019

GREAT READS

Behind Georgia’s Covid-19 dashboard disaster

Behind Georgia’s Covid-19 dashboard disaster

October 24, 2020
How political polarization changed the way Atlantans interact

The way we live politics

October 21, 2020

In politically mixed friend groups, a lesson for navigating differences

October 21, 2020

FOLLOW OUR INSTAGRAM

@atlantamagazine
126.7k Followers
Follow
Atlanta Magazine
ABOUT US
Since 1961, Atlanta magazine, the city’s premier general interest publication, has served as the authority on Atlanta, providing its readers with a mix of long-form nonfiction, lively lifestyle coverage, in-depth service journalism, and literary essays, columns, and profiles.
FOLLOW US
  • Subscribe
  • Subscriber Login
  • Newsletters
  • Issue Archive
  • Advertise
  • Contact Us
  • Atlanta 500
  • Give Atlanta
  • #OpenForBusiness
© 2021. All rights reserved.