Susan Graham (born July 23, 1960) is an American mezzo-soprano. She has had an international career in operas and concerts since her stage debut in 1985 at the Eugene Opera. In her early career she came to prominence on the international stage in several trouser roles; among them Annio in La clemenza di Tito, Cherubino in The Marriage of Figaro, The Composer in Ariadne auf Naxos, and Octavian in Der Rosenkavalier. She has premièred several roles in contemporary operas, including John Harbison's The Great Gatsby (Jordan Baker), Jake Heggie's Dead Man Walking (Sister Helen Prejean), and Tobias Picker's An American Tragedy (Sondra Finchley). Graham is a noted champion of the French song repertoire and of songs by contemporary American composers, including Ned Rorem and Lowell Liebermann. She has sung leading roles at the Metropolitan Opera, the Royal Opera House, La Scala, the Paris Opera, and the Vienna State Opera among other theaters. In 2004 she won the Grammy Award for Best Classical Vocal Performance.
The daughter of Floyd "Pete" and Betty Rae Graham, Susan Graham was born in Roswell, New Mexico on July 23, 1960. She spent her early years living in Roswell where she attended elementary school and junior high school. Due to her father's work as a geophysicist, the family moved to various locations in West Texas before her family finally settled in Midland, Texas when she was thirteen years old. She has maintained strong family ties to eastern New Mexico, having relatives living in Roswell, Clovis, and Lovington.
Graham's initial training as a musician was as a pianist which she began studying when she was approximately 7 year old. She studied the piano for 13 years. She began singing in her church choir in Roswell at the age of 6. In Texas she was a member of Midland First United Methodist Church which she attended with fellow congregants George W. Bush and Laura Bush. When she first moved to Midland it was in the middle of her 8th grade year, and she became a student at Goddard Junior High School. She began taking voice lessons when she was in high school. She graduated from Midland Lee High School (MLHS). In her senior year she portrayed Maria Von Trapp in MLHS's production of The Sound of Music.
Graham attended Texas Tech University (TTU) where she graduated with a Bachelor of Music degree in 1983. Her voice teacher at the university was Mary Gillas. She continued graduate studies in vocal performance at TTU. She was a performer in multiple choirs at the university, and appeared in multiple student opera productions directed by John Gillas. She portrayed Hansel in TTU's 1984 production of Engelbert Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel. She graduated with a master's degree from TTU in 1985, and then immediately pursued further voice studies at the Manhattan School of Music (MSM) in New York with Marlena Malas.
In 1986 Graham performed in MSM's production of Hans Werner Henze's The English Cat which was directed by Lou Galterio. The following year she portrayed the title role in MSM's production of Jules Massenet's Chérubin in that opera's first performance in the United States. In her second year at MSM, she successfully auditioned for the Merola Opera Program; a summer training program for young opera singers operated by the San Francisco Opera. The 1987 summer Merola program ended with a capstone vocal competition in which Graham won the top honor, the Schwabacher Memorial Award, which included a cash prize of four thousand dollars. In 1988 she was one of the winners of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. In 1990 the Richard Tucker Music Foundation awarded her a career grant.
While still a university student, Graham made her professional opera debut in Oregon in December 1985 in the trouser role of Hansel in Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel with Eugene Opera at the Hult Center for the Performing Arts. Trouser roles would become a specialty of hers in her early career. In the summer of 1988 she portrayed Erika in Samuel Barber's Vanessa at the Opera Theatre of Saint Louis (OTSL). The following October she appeared as Stéphano, another breeches role, in Gounod's Roméo et Juliette at the Seattle Opera. In December 1988 she made her professional concert debut at Alice Tully Hall with the New York Chamber Ensemble singing Gustav Mahler's Des Knaben Wunderhorn.
In 1989 Graham returned to Missouri as Charlotte in OTSL's production of Massenet's Werther, and was a soloist in Mozart's Requiem with the Bach Society of St. Louis. That same year she portrayed both Flora in La traviata and Annina in Der Rosenkavalier at the Santa Fe Opera, and gave her first performance with the Lyric Opera of Chicago in the pants role of Annio in La clemenza di Tito. In February 1989 she sang the world premiere of Rhian Samuel's "Before Dawn" with the National Orchestral Association. In December 1989 she was one of the soloists in the world premiere of Bright Sheng's orchestrated version of Leonard Bernstein's Arias and Barcarolles which was given at the 92nd Street Y with the New York Chamber Symphony under Gerard Schwarz.
In 1990 Graham made her international debut at the Opéra de Lyon as a replacement for Anne Sofie von Otter as Béatrice in Berlioz's Béatrice et Bénédict; a role which she recorded for her first complete opera recording soon after. In March 1990 she sang Octavian in Der Rosenkavalier for the first time in a concert version of the opera with the Richmond Symphony Orchestra and Ellen Shade as the Marschallin. One of her signature parts, she later sang Octavian in either staged or concert versions with the San Francisco Symphony (1991), the Minnesota Orchestra (1992), the Welsh National Opera (1994), the Teatro Regio in Turin, the Vienna State Opera, and the Paris Opera.
In October 1990 Graham returned to Seattle Opera as the Kitchen Boy in Rusalka. In November 1990 she made her debut at the San Francisco Opera as Minerva in Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria. That same year she appeared with the Washington National Opera as Sonia in Dominick Argento's The Aspern Papers, and returned to Santa Fe as both Dorabella in Mozart's Così fan tutte and in the trouser role of The Composer in Richard Strauss's Ariadne auf Naxos.
In September 1991 Graham made her debut at the Metropolitan Opera ("the Met") as the Second Lady in The Magic Flute with Ruth Welting as the Queen of the Night, Jerry Hadley as Tamino, Dawn Upshaw as Pamina, and James Levine conducting. That same year she appeared as a soloist with the New York Philharmonic led by Robert Shaw in performances of Barber's Prayers of Kierkegaard and Mozart's Great Mass in C minor, K. 427. She performed the trouser role of Cherubino in The Marriage of Figaro at the Santa Fe Opera in 1991, and later sang Cherubino at the Met in 1992 as a replacement for Frederica von Stade whose husband was having surgery. In February 1992 she portrayed Rosina in The Barber of Seville with the Edmonton Opera in Canada.
Graham's other early Met roles included Tebaldo in Verdi's Don Carlo (1992), Meg Page in Verdi's Falstaff (1992, with Paul Plishka in the title role), and Ascanius in Berlioz's Les Troyens (1993-1994). She sang Octavian at the Met in 1995 for her first major part at that opera house. She had a major success at the Salzburg Festival in 1993 in the breeches role of Cecilio in Mozart's Lucio Silla. She gave her first performances at the Royal Opera House (ROH), Covent Garden the following year as Massenet's Chérubin; a role she repeated at that theatre in 1997. She sang Mozart's Cherubino again at the Glyndebourne Festival Opera (1995), the Salzburg Festival (1995), the Lyric Opera of Chicago (1997), Vienna State Opera (1997-1998), and the Metropolitan Opera (1997 & 1999).
In 1994 Graham returned to Opéra de Lyon as Marguerite in Berlioz La damnation de Faust; a production which was recorded by Erato Records and released on disc by that label in 1995. Around this time she sang Berlioz's Marguerite again for her debut at La Scala. She repeated the role of Berlioz's Beatrice with the Opéra Français de New York (1997) and at the Santa Fe Opera (1998). She repeated the role of The Composer in Ariadne auf Naxos at the Vienna State Opera (1997).