Dr. John Anthony Ray serves as Assistant Professor of Voice and Director of UAB Opera. He has appeared regionally and internationally in opera, musical theater, oratorio, and recital, performing with The Nashville Symphony, Alabama Symphony, Huntsville Symphony, Tuscaloosa Symphony, and Saint John’s Symphony of London. He has twice served as bass soloist/recitalist for The International Cathedral Music Festival held in London, Canterbury, and Salisbury, England, appearing in the prestigious Queen Elizabeth Hall of the Royal Albert Complex.

Dr. Ray’s recent symphony engagements include Faure’s Requiem, Brahm’s Requiem, Bach’s Saint John Passion, Stavinsky’s Les Noces, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, Mendelssohn’s Elijah, and Handel’s Messiah.  Recent operatic engagements have included The Nashville Opera as Marquis d’Obigny for La Traviata, OperaSouth as Balthzarr for Amahl and the Night Visitors, and Alabama Operaworks as Cowen for Different Fields. His recent musical theater appearances include Chaffin’s Dinner Theater in Nashville for The Sound of Music, and a highly successful run of Birmingham Summerfest Theater’s production of Annie, in which he portrayed Daddy Warbucks. John's eclectic approach to singing has also garnered work for him as a studio session singer in Nashville, where he serves as “first-call bass” for Abingdon Press, and works in some of Nashville’s most prestigious recording studios.

Thus far, John's 2005 engagements have included a recital featuring music of Beethoven and Ravel and the song cycle, White Rose, by composer, Terry Lowry, for which John wrote the poetry; an all-Brahms program  with The Alabama Symphony in January; the role of The King for Opera Birmingham’s production of Aida in February; and, in May, Mozart’s Requiem with The Birmingham Concert Chorale, Beethoven’s Mass in C with the Birmingham Choral Guild, and Haydn’s Lord Nelson Mass with Nashville’s Vanderbilt Community Chorus. In June of this year, John served as a soloist for evensongs in Saint Mary’s Cathedral of Edinburough, Scotland. In March 0f 2006, he will return to Opera Birmingham's stage as The Bonze in their production of Puccini's Madama Butterfly

As Director of Opera for The University of Alabama at Birmingham, Dr. Ray has successfully directed Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Mikado, Menotti’s Amahl and the Night Visitors and The Telephone, and in March 2005, Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro.

An accomplished lyricist, Dr. Ray holds active publications with such well known companies as Warner Brothers, Hal Leonard, Lorenz, and Abingdon Press, with several forthcoming releases .  As a librettist, John's recently completed libretto for the new oratorio, Jepthah, with composer Terry Lowry, was premiered in March, 2005, at Italy’s Choral Festival Italia. He is presently working on a new libretto for an operatic adaptation of Edgar Alan Poe’s The Tell Tale Heart.

John holds degrees from Samford University, where he studied with G. William Bugg, and a Doctor of Musical Arts in Vocal Performance Degree from The University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, where he studied with Ed White and received coaching from world- renowned baritone, Sherrill Milnes.

Contact Information:
Office Phone: (205) 934-8906
Email:rayj@uab.edu