Grace Mannion

Grace Mannion has been a professional singer-teacher-vocal coach for over 35 years. She has taught voice at Western Michigan University since 1996, and has also served on the faculties of Kalamazoo College, the University of North Dakota/Grand Forks, and the University of California/Santa Barbara. She received the Teacher Recognition Award from the National Foundation for the Advancement in the Arts, and she is a member of the National Association of Teachers of Singing. For the Metropolitan Opera Auditions, she was the North Dakota-Manitoba District Winner and an Upper-Midwest Regional Finalist.

She attributes her teaching and singing abilities to her mother and teacher—the internationally-acclaimed mezzo-soprano, Elizabeth Mannion, whose passion for excellence and honesty through the art of singing remains the primary focus of Grace's studio.

Grace's varied performance career encompasses opera, musical theatre, oratorio, and recital work. Favorite roles include Fraulein Schneider (Cabaret), Laurie (The Tender Land), Magdalena (Rigoletto), Inez (Il Trovatore), Cherubino (The Marriage of Figaro), Pamina (The Magic Flute), Mercedes (Carmen), and Princess (L’Enfant et les Sortileges) in appearances with the Peoria Civic Opera, the Aspen Music Festival, the Santa Barbara Symphony, the Santa Barbara Chamber Orchestra, and the Greater Grand Forks Symphony. In addition, she been featured as soprano soloist with the Janáček Philharmonic Orchestra in the Czech Republic (Rossini’s Stabat Mater and Mahler’s Mass in G) and the Santa Rosa Symphony (Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 and Mahler's Symphony No. 2).

Grace's former students have performed in Broadway productions of Waitress, The Book of Mormon, Godspell, Bright Star, A Christmas Carol, and Mrs. Doubtfire, national tours of The Color Purple, Bullets Over Broadway, Beauty and the Beast, Guys and Dolls, Elf, and professional engagements on the Norwegian and Disney cruise lines. Several of these students have gone on to graduate programs at Indiana University, The University of Minnesota/Twin Cities, University of California/Irvine, and the Boston Conservatory at Berklee; two high school students from her private studio have been accepted into Interlochen and the University of Michigan.