East Studio Building, JS233
Education
- A.D. in Opera Performance, The Juilliard School, 2009
- M.M. in Vocal Performance, University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, 2005
- B.M. in Vocal Performance, Boston University, 2002
Baritone Kelly Markgraf is associate professor of music in voice at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music.
Markgraf’s diverse career has encompassed music from the baroque to that composed expressly for him. He created the roles of Paul Jobs in Mason Bates’s The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs at Santa Fe Opera (Grammy Award recipient for Best Opera Recording), Ring Lardner in Joel Puckett's The Fix, and Hannah-Before in Laura Kaminsky’s groundbreaking As One. Committed to unique works and collaborations, he gave the U.S. premiere of Shostakovich’s War Front Songs, presented rare songs of Viktor Ullmann at Alice Tully Hall, and bowed in Adams’ The Death of Klinghoffer, conducted by the composer.
Markgraf has enjoyed collaborations with some of the world’s most esteemed conductors, including Gustavo Dudamel, Charles Dutoit, Alan Gilbert, Giancarlo Guerrero, Paavo Jarvi, Edo de Waart, and Michael Tilson Thomas at symphonies such as the New York Philharmonic, Boston Symphony, NHK Symphony Orchestra (Tokyo), San Francisco Symphony, and Los Angeles Philharmonic. Recent memorable operatic appearances include La Traviata with Angel Blue and L’Enfant et les Sortileges alongside Isabel Leonard.
As a collaborator of depth and versatility, Markgraf has sung repertoire from Bach to Barber with the top chamber music festivals in the U.S., including the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center at Alice Tully Hall, and has performed in recital twice at Carnegie Hall.
His discography includes the world-premiere recordings of Mason Bates’s The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs, Harbison’s Requiem, Ricky Ian Gordon’s The Grapes of Wrath, Kaminsky’s As One, and Floyd’s Wuthering Heights. Further albums include West Side Story with the San Francisco Symphony, Michael Tilson Thomas and Cheyenne Jackson, and two chamber music albums (Music@Menlo). Markgraf has been seen on PBS’s nationally televised Great Performances at Carnegie Hall with Thomas Hampson and Yo-Yo Ma, and heard on NPR’s Performance Today.
Having long balanced teaching and performing, Markgraf’s ardent interest in archaic treatises informs his pedagogy and makes centuries-old bel canto concepts accessible to the modern singer. He is the founder and lead mentor of The Legato Project, a mentoring platform offering guidance to aspiring young vocalists seeking entry into university music programs and conservatories.