About Michael Parham
Michael Parham, a native of Chattanooga, Tennessee, is an American baritone known for his “resonant and ear-caressing” voice and compelling artistry on both opera and concert stages. Most recently, Michael made his Houston Grand Opera debut as a soloist and ensemble member in George Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess. He has also appeared as a featured soloist in Porgy and Bess in the Grammy Award-winning Metropolitan Opera production. Other met productions include Terence Blanchard’s Fire Shut Up In My Bones—a landmark work as the first opera by a Black composer programmed by the Met—which went on to win the Best Opera Recording category at the 2023 Grammy Awards, Wagner’s Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, and Anthony Davis’s X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X. Beyond this, he has made professional debuts with Lyric Opera of Chicago, Virginia Symphony, Opera Las Vegas, and in 2022 debuted the role of Javan in the U.S. premiere of Leslie Uyeda’s When the Sun Comes Out at Portland Opera. Recent role highlights also include Tiger “Jackie” Brown in Threepenny Opera with City Lyric Opera, Lawyer Frazier in Porgy and Bess with South Florida Symphony, Peter in Hansel and Gretel with Opera Las Vegas, and Dr. Falke in Die Fledermaus with the Martina Arroyo Prelude to Performance. A self-proclaimed “choir boy,” Michael is devoted to choral music, sacred repertoire, and oratorio, having been featured in works such as Orff’s Carmina Burana, Handel’s Messiah, Dubois’s Seven Last Words of Christ, Mozart’s Mass in C, and excerpts from Mendelssohn’s Elijah.
His artistry has been recognized through many honors, including being a 2019–20 New York District Winner of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, a 2019 Semi-Finalist in the Premiere Opera Foundation Competition, and a 2017 Finalist in the Meistersinger Competition in Graz, Austria. He is a distinguished alumnus of the Chattanooga Boys Choir in 2023 and is a 2024 honoree of Oakwood University Alumni “40 Under 40.”
Michael is an alumnus of Oakwood University, the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, and the Portland Opera Resident Artist Program. In addition, he holds a certificate in Italian Studies from the Istituto Avventista di Cultura Biblica in Florence, Italy.
As a voice teacher, he proudly trains the next generation of young opera singers. His students have recently performed at the BBC Proms, in recital at Berklee College of Music, in collaboration with Samara Joy, as members of the Denyce Graves Foundation Shared Voices Cohort, at Houston Grand Opera, and on tour with the Jason Max Ferdinand Singers. A passionate advocate for the continued relevance of Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Parham brings his professional experience and deep commitment to cultural legacy into the studio and the classroom as an Assistant Professor of Music at his alma mater Oakwood University.