[3] After immigrating to the United States in 2003, Dunphy was asked to write music at the last minute for a production of A Midsummer Night's Dream that she was acting in, which helped her discover her love of composing and choose to pursue it professionally.
[2] Dunphy has served as the composer-in-residence for multiple institutions, namely the Immaculata Symphony Orchestra (2010), the Volti Choral Arts Lab (2013–2014, 2016), and the St. Louis Chamber Chorus (2015–2018).
[2] After excavating the first privy (which extended 19 feet below the property), they found hundreds of ceramic artifacts, glass bottles, oyster shells, and animal bones dating back to the early 1700s.
Melissa and Matthew have a podcast named The Boghouse where they talk about their adventures buying the magic theater, and the chaos that followed their discovery of thousands of pre-revolutionary artifacts.
"[4][5] A Gritty Resolution In 2024, Melissa Dunphy was commissioned by the local a cappella group PhilHarmonia to write a composition for its 10th anniversary show.
The only stipulation was that it had to be about Philadelphia.Although Dunphy, a Philadelphia enthusiast, was nearing her deadline with no ideas, inspiration struck as she glanced at her 2020 protest sign featuring Gritty, one of the city's beloved sports mascot.
PhilHarmonia premiered “A Gritty Resolution” along with two other commissioned pieces at its free 10th anniversary concert, in the summer of 2024 The event, held at the Settlement Music School's Germantown branch, featured various works celebrating Philadelphia, including an a cappella rendition of the 6ABC Action News theme song.
I would die for Gritty.”[7] N-400 Erasure Songs Dunphy was commissioned by Cantus, an eight-member male vocal ensemble, in 2021 to write a piece on the subject of immigration.
She asked two poets, Nina Pollari and Laurel Chen, to black out text on the Form N-400 to create Erasure poetry which she then set to music.
"[8] An SATB arrangement was subsequently commissioned by the South Bend Chamber Singers, and the work has notably been performed by Boston Choral Ensemble, Seattle Pro Musica, Quincy Civic Music Association, and numerous times by Cantus.
[10] The opera tells the story of 19th century sex worker Alice Tierney, who was found strangled on a fence at the back of Dunphy's property in Center City Philadelphia in 1880.
[17] Dunphy reports that she asked John Ashcroft for permission to arrange his song "Let the Eagle Soar" as a "companion piece," but he turned her down on grounds of "artistic differences.
[18][19][20] Julian Sanchez described the cantata as "sort of like Henry Purcell filtered through late John Adams";[21] other reviewers mentioned its similarity to Handelian opera[22] or to P.D.Q.
It was staged as a cantata or oratorio; characters wore red or blue dresses depending on party affiliation, with tiaras as well as sashes bearing their names.
The Philadelphia Inquirer called her "unquestionably the city's leading Shakespeare ingenue" for her performance as Ophelia in the Lantern Theater Company's Hamlet.