Graves, Edward

(Oxon Hill, Maryland)

Praised by Opera News as a tenor of “stunningly sweet tone,” Edward Graves is a second-year Adler Fellow with San Francisco Opera. His most recent Bay Area performances include a workshop of Jake Heggie’s upcoming world premiere opera Intelligence with Houston Grand Opera, as well as Stone/Eunuch in Bright Sheng’s Dreams of the Red Chamber and Gastone in La traviata, both on the War Memorial Opera House stage. At SFO, he has covered the roles of Alfredo in La Traviata and Lensky in Eugene Onegin before engaging in a “thrilling who-can-sing-it-higher face-off from Rossini’s Otello” (San Francisco Chronicle) in the Adler Fellowship’s The Future Is Now concert.

Recent and upcoming performances include Rodolfo in Bohème Out of the Box with San Francisco Opera and Anatol in Vanessa for his role and company debut with Spoleto Festival USA.

He recently joined Virginia Symphony for Handel’s Messiah, Detroit Opera as Policeman 2 in Jeanine Tesori’s Blue, and Berkshire Choral International as the title role of Handel’s Judas Maccabaeus. His 2021 appearance in Merola Opera Program’s What The Heart Desires earned a San Francisco Chronicle rave for his “superbly bright, clarion sound.”

Additional credits include Rinuccio in a double bill of Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi and Ching’s Buoso’s Ghost with Michigan Opera Theatre, Robbins in Porgy and Bess with Seattle Opera, and Policeman 2 in the world premiere of Blue at the Glimmerglass Festival, where he also sang Fred in Oklahoma! and Peter in Porgy and Bess. As a Baumgartner Studio Artist at Florentine Opera, he performed roles in The Merry Widow, Venus and Adonis / Dido and Aeneas and The Magic Flute. While at Indiana University, Graves participated in a Game of Thrones-inspired production of Rodelinda and has since been drawn to the virtuosic music of Handel.

Graves is a 2022 San Francisco District winner of the Metropolitan Opera’s Laffont Competition. Following his bachelor studies in Voice Performance at Towson University, he received his Performer Diploma and Master of Music in Voice Performance from Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music and participated in the 2021 Merola Opera Program.