BIOGRAPHY
Grace Steiner, mezzo-soprano, is passionate about sharing music with the community around her through works that speak clearly to them. One way she seeks to achieve this goal is through her love of contemporary English-language opera. In spring 2023, she sang the lead role of Diana in the world premiere of Susan Kander’s chamber opera Carry My Own Suitcase, a winner of the 2022 Opera America Discovery Grant. Her other operatic highlights have included Nerone (L’incoronazione di Poppea), Sorceress (Dido and Aeneas), Ruth (Pirates of Penzance), and Dritte Dame (Die Zauberflöte). Furthermore, as a proponent of vocal music in all its forms, Grace often straddles the line of musical theatre and opera. In 2024, she portrayed Mrs. Lovett in Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd.
Grace participated as the Mezzo-Soprano Young Artist for the Ad Astra Music Festival (2019) and sang in the Opera Studio at the American Institute of Musical Studies in Graz, Austria (2018), where she made her European orchestral debut singing selections from Bernstein’s West Side Story.
Through teaching, though, Grace most eagerly uses her skills to use music as a bridge to connect individuals. A doctoral student in voice at the University of Kansas, Grace is student of Joyce Castle and Genaro Mendez, and she has dedicated her research to discovering underperformed vocal literature appropriate for the undergraduate or beginning voice student. Grace currently serves as Adjunct Professor of Music (Voice) at Rockhurst University, a GTA of Voice/Opera at KU, and instructor for her private studio.