Hailed as a performer of the “highest caliber,” Dr. Melissa Plamann “command[s] the console with confidence, musicality, and fine technique.” (The Tracker). Plamann is the Wanda L. Bass Chair of Organ and Professor of Music at Oklahoma City University’s Bass School of Music; she also serves as Artist-in-Residence at Westminster Presbyterian Church in OKC and organist for the St. Paul School of Theology. A Wisconsin native, Plamann holds organ performance degrees from Valparaiso University and Emory University, and she was awarded her DM from Indiana University-Bloomington, where she studied with Dr. Larry Smith.

 

Plamann maintains an active performing schedule, and she particularly enjoys programming 20th- and 21st-century works and collaborative pieces featuring other instruments with the organ. She is an active member and past dean of the Oklahoma City chapter of the American Guild of Organists, and she has served as an executive board member of the Oklahoma Alliance for Liturgy and the Arts, a non-profit organization that fosters liturgical art and encourages creative collaboration between artists, religious groups, and the larger community. 

 

An avid scholar, Plamann recently published her first book with Bloomsbury Academic Press. Unnerved: The Performer’s Guide to Managing Anxiety (January, 2026) is a relatable and practical roadmap for combating each performer’s unique brand of performance anxiety by discovering and managing their root emotional drivers.