Born in New York City,[1] Errico went to high school in Manhasset while taking dance lessons in Manhattan. Her father is an orthopedic surgeon and concert pianist. Her mother is a former teacher who now works as a sculptor.[3] She began her professional career at 12, appearing on the syndicated children's TV series The Great Space Coaster.[4] Errico's maternal grandmother was an opera singer.[5][6]
Education
Errico is a graduate of Yale University. During her freshman year, Errico was asked to audition for the role of Cosette while trying out for a different show, and was cast.[7][8] Errico took a leave of absence from Yale and performed in a tour of Les Misérables, then returned to complete a degree in art history and philosophy.[7][9] Errico is also a graduate of the British American Drama Academy's 1991 Midsummer in Oxford Programme.[10]
Errico has been recognized as an interpreter of Stephen Sondheim's work, with Terry Teachout of The Wall Street Journal calling her 2018 album Sondheim Sublime "the best all-Sondheim album ever recorded".[28] In 2022, The Wall Street Journal said her new album Out Of The Dark: The Film Noir Project "gives us noir music the way we imagine it...melancholy, bittersweet tales of isolation and loneliness, beauty and betrayal—especially relevant at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic...Ms. Errico sings throughout with a tone at once wistful and probing, suggesting that romance and mystery are but different sides of the same coin...we are breathing along with her, seeing what she sees, feeling what she feels...she makes it "uncommonly clear" that we are all silent partners in our own destruction, and that the most we can hope for is a few brief moments of tenderness".[29]
Errico has had roles in a number of films, including Mockingbird Don't Sing, Frequency, and Life or Something Like It. In 2013, Errico recorded the theme song for the movie Max Rose. The soundtrack features an original score by Michel Legrand, and Errico sang the main title track, "Hurry Home".[38] In 2019, Errico curated a film festival for French Institute Alliance Française (FIAF) in New York City celebrating movies featuring the music of composer Michel Legrand.[39] In 2021 at the height of the pandemic, The New Yorker writer Adam Gopnik and Melissa Errico curated FIAF's new CinéSalon series Out of the Dark: The Mystery of Film Noir. Incorporating both French and American examples—and some that involve French filmmakers who immigrated to America—the series explored the many sides of the 'noir' vision in cinema with special attention paid to the Franco-American dialogue at its core.[40] The series was co-presented by The Cultural Services, a division of the French Embassy in the United States. The Cultural Services were first imagined in the 1930's by Paul Claudel. In 1945 General de Gaulle appointed Claude Lévi-Strauss as the first Cultural Counselor, with the mission of providing Americans (individuals and organizations) with access and resources to engage with French culture and promote it in their own communities.[41]
Recording career
Solo albums
Blue Like That (Manhattan Records/EMI) produced by Arif Mardin – released February 25, 2003
On November 18, 2022 Errico made her debut at Carnegie Hall, performing/co-starring with the New York Pops in their concert Broadway Blockbusters.[59]
In June 2023 Errico opened for George Benson at the Montreal International Jazz Festival at the Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier before a sold-out crowd of 3,000 people, singing a set of music by her mentor the late Michel Legrand. Of the performance, London Jazz News wrote “Errico was energized, making sure with every breath that she would get the audience in the 3000-seater Pelletier really on her side. Every high note was heroically held, and she got a standing ovation from this audience. Montreal audiences always want to show their warmth and this one made her deservedly welcome.”[60] Added the Quebec Journal, in its review, "It was the Italian-American chanteuse Melissa Errico who was responsible for energizing the concert hall, and that she did, expressing herself as fluently in French as in English, and offering a memorable reprise of Legrand's "Valse des Lilas/Once Upon A Summertime."[61]
Personal life
She has two siblings – Mike Errico and Melanie Errico. She met her husband, former tennis professional and ESPN sports commentator Patrick McEnroe, when they were in grade school together.[62] They married on December 19, 1998, at the Holy Trinity Church on W. 82nd Street.[63] She lives in New York with their three daughters.[64]
Writing
She has penned several columns in The New York Times since 2016 providing wry and illuminating takes on the performers' life. These include columns which discuss returning to ingenue roles later in life,[26] her experience as a headliner performer on a themed cruise,[65] gender politics,[27] her time with composer Michel Legrand,[66] the recent trend of home-taping for auditions,[67] the process of digitally rehearsing and producing a full musical production of Meet Me in St. Louis during the COVID-19 pandemic,[68] a costume fitting for her first live concert since the pandemic began,[69] an essay about being on the road examining a performer's life, before and after the pandemic,[70] and a profile piece on cabaret icon Marilyn Maye ahead of her 95th birthday and long-awaited Carnegie Hall debut.[71]
She wrote an expanded article on her experiences with Legrand, which was published in the French magazine La Règle du Jeu [fr].[72]
Errico was a principal speaker at the Annual Broadway Blessing in 2013.[80][81]
Philanthropy
Errico founded the Bowery Babes in 2005 and continues to serve in an advisory capacity.[82] She performed at Merkin Concert Hall in June 2015 to support the Ali Forney Center, which assists homeless LGBT youth.[83] She has supported the arts organization Sing For Hope[84] and non-profit camp SAY, for children who stutter.[85] Errico appeared in Take Me to the World: A Sondheim 90th Birthday Celebration, a fundraiser for Artists Striving To End Poverty (ASTEP) in April 2020.[86]
