Robert Grayson

Kirkpatrick Professor, Emeritus

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Biography

Robert Grayson, Edith Kilgore Kirkpatrick Professor of Voice, served as the Chair of the Voice/Opera/Choral Division of the LSU School of Music for 30 years.  In 2016 he was recognized for his legacy of building the LSU Opera and Voice Programs into a nationally recognized program.  His studio was named in his honor, and the Robert & Karola Grayson Award for Excellence in Singing was established.

Prof. Grayson is widely recognized as the teacher of Lisette Oropesa, with whom he has worked for 24 years, and he teaches a number of international singers online.  At LSU Grayson continues his distinguished teaching with his teaching partner, renowned tenor, Paul Groves, who was a member of Grayson’s first voice studio at LSU in 1985.  This teaching collaboration is unique in all collegiate voice instruction.  It pairs a noted GRAMMY winning tenor-pedagogue with an internationally famed and active tenor-performer-teacher, who has three GRAMMYS!

Since 2022, Prof. Grayson has taught young artists at the Metropolitan Opera, the Canadian Opera Company, and he is a regular master teacher with the Castleton Vocal Immersion Program near Washington, D. C.  In 2024 Grayson created three online classes for Tonebase.com, and served with Alessandro Galoppini, Casting Director for Teatro alla scala, as an adjudicator for the Orfeo Singing Concourse of the Americas held in Costa Rica.  In demand as an adjudicator, he has served with the Metropolitan Opera Auditions, the National Federation of Music Clubs, and with various regions of the National Association of Teachers.

Prof. Grayson’s teaching is informed by his own professional experience as a leading tenor, which included over 100 performances for the New York City Opera where he made his debut as “Faust” in Mefistofele with Sam Ramey as “Mefisto”, and where he sang new productions of Tosca, Norma, La Traviata, La Rondine, as well as many performances of La Boheme, Carmen, and Madama Butterfly.  Grayson performed 43 leading tenor roles with some of the luminaries of the last 50 years of opera, including Beverly Sills, Jerome Hines, Tatiana Troyanos, Samuel Ramey, Susan Graham, Elizabeth Futral, Jeffrey Wells, Chad Shelton, Marilyn Niska, and has sung under the batons of Charles Mackerras, Richard Bonynge, Eduardo Muller, Julius Rudel, Bruno Rigacci, and Walter Herbert.  Grayson’s formal education includes the Bachelor of Music with concentrations in Opera, Organ, and Conducting; the Master of Music in Voice; a Doctoral Fellowship at the University of Southern California; and a Fellowship at the American Opera Center at The Juilliard School.

From 1998 to 2002 Professor Grayson served as the first General-Artistic Director of the LSU Opera, during which time productions were increased from two to four per year, two state-wide tours were undertaken, and budgets were quadrupled through fund raising and engagement of the community. The Patrons of LSU Opera were formed, the LSU Opera Endowment was initiated, the 75 Voices were born. Extant opera groups were cultivated and integrated into the support system for LSU Opera, including BRAVO (Baton Rouge Area Volunteers for Opera) and BROG (Baton Rouge Opera Guild).

Grayson has produced a number of outstanding professional singers. Foremost among these artists is Tenor Paul Groves who has made auspicious debuts at the MET, La Scala, Vienna, Munich, and Glyndebourne. Soprano Lisette Oropesa, who has electrified the operatic world at the MET, La Scala, Covent Garden, Paris Opera, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Salzburg, Opera di Roma, etc. Tenor Chad Shelton, of the MET, New York City Opera, Houston Grand, San Francisco, Strasbourg; Tenor Matt Morgan, of New York City Opera, the Pittsburgh Opera, National Grand Opera, Fort Worth Opera; Baritone Noel Bouley, Deutsche Opera, Opera San Jose, Opera Koln. Baritone Shon Sims of New York City Opera, Seattle Opera, Colorado Festival Opera; Soprano Kimla Beasley of Houston Grand; Character tenor Edward Dacus of Ohio Light Opera, New Orleans Opera; Heldentenor Andrew Zimmerman, Aachen, Pfortzheim, Germany; Baritone Kenneth Brundage, Ohio Light Opera, New Orleans Opera; Mezzo Soprano Kathleen Clawson, regional orchestral soloist; Soprano Dawn Harris, Ohio Light Opera, Chicago Opera Theatre. Two Tucker Award winners, and one Beverly Sills Award winner from the MET.

In the Fall of 2007 Grayson founded Opera Louisiane, a professional regional company which brought some of the world's great singers to Baton Rouge, provided opportunities to Louisiana singers and musicians, and continues to present fully-staged operas to school children and to the community with more than 30,000 attending over the years first 4 years. Grayson stepped down at the end of the season in 2011, with the company "in the black" and with a reserve for the following season.

Grayson plans to maintain his LSU studio in partnership with Paul Groves through the 2034-2035 academic year.  His passion for the pipe organ is shared by his wife, Karola. They were introduced as college freshmen by their organ professor. They have one amazing daughter and three most amazing grandchildren.