Jonathan Ray serves as Assistant Professor of Music at Central Methodist University, where he teaches applied voice, opera workshop, Italian diction, and beginning conducting, as well as music directs and conducts the musical theater productions.

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Hailed for his "very rich, full tenor" (Broadway World), Dr. Ray has performed as a soloist with such companies as Utah Festival Opera & Musical Theatre, The American Festival Chorus, The Lyric Opera of Kansas City, Heartland Opera Theatre, The Missouri Symphony, Opera in the Rock, The Baton Rouge Symphony Orchestra, St. Petersburg Opera, Music On Site, Lawrence Opera Theatre, Opera in the Ozarks, and Greensboro Light Opera and Song. He has been invited to appear as a professional concert soloist in institutions of higher education such as the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, the University of Missouri, Missouri Southern State University, Louisiana State University, Hesston College, and Clarke University. He has appeared with professional Columbia, MO choir Prometheus and is a regular member of the professional Columbia choir Vox Nova. As a rising director and conductor, Dr. Ray has appeared with Landlocked Opera, Opera Kansas, and the Odyssey Chamber Series.

 

Known for his "stamina and unrelenting concentration, as well as his lovely singing" (Arktimes), some of Dr. Ray’s operatic highlights include the principal tenor roles in Così fan tutte, Roméo et Juliette, La Traviata, La finta giardiniera, Die Fledermaus, Il barbiere di Siviglia, L’italiana in Algeri, La Cenerentola, Béatrice et Bénédict, Don Giovanni, The Abduction from the Seraglio, Albert Herring, Die Zauberflöte, Le nozze di Figaro, L’elisir d’amore, Gianni Schicchi, Candide, The Gondoliers, Pirates of Penzance, Trial by Jury, and others. His musical theater credits include roles in She Loves Me, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Into the Woods, Amazing Grace, Hairspray, Sweeney Todd, Assassins, You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown, South Pacific, A Little Night Music, and many others. An active recitalist, his major performances include Schubert’s Die schöne Müllerin, Beethoven’s An die ferne Geliebte, Finzi’s A Young Man’s Exhortation, Schumann’s Dichterliebe, Philip Glass’s Songs from Liquid Days, and many cycles by Benjamin Britten. Some concert work includes the tenor solos in Haydn's Lord Nelson Mass, Orff's Carmina Burana, Stravinsky’s Cantata, Bach BWV 78, 148, & 211, and Mozart’s Requiem in D minor and Great Mass in C minor.

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Dr. Ray received the Doctorate of Musical Arts in Vocal Performance with a minor in Choral Conducting from Louisiana State University, where he studied with tenor Robert Grayson and coached with renowned vocal pedagogue Loraine Sims and Metropolitan Opera tenor Paul Groves. He received his Master of Music in Vocal Performance from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, where he studied with Carla LeFevre. He earned his Bachelor of Vocal and Instrumental Music Education from Arkansas Tech University, where he studied with Jon Clements and Arlene Biebesheimer and his major instruments were voice and tuba. In 2019, Dr. Ray completed his apprenticeship as the tenor Apprentice Artist with The Lyric Opera of Kansas City, where he studied with tenor Vinson Cole.

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Dr. Ray is a member of NATS (The National Association of Teachers of Singing) and serves on the board for Mid-MO NATS. His students have gone on to earn top prizes in various NATS categories (as well as other nationally recognized vocal competitions), teach at secondary and higher levels of education, and are seen performing throughout the Midwest and beyond. Dr. Ray serves as music director for traditional worship at First Baptist Church in Columbia. He is also the co-founding artistic director for Landlocked Opera, a non-profit opera company that he runs with his wife, Christina. The mission of Landlocked Opera is to make opera accessible to the community by celebrating historic works while also championing new works, ideas, and artists. landlockedopera.org

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When he isn't making or teaching music, Dr. Ray loves spending time with his beautiful wife Christina and their wonderful children Lucy and Milo.