Peter Graham Ashbaugh, Bass-Baritone holds a B.A. from Whitman College in Washington State and has studied and coached with Maurice Stern and Marianne Weltmann.
He was the Pacific Northwest Regional Winner in the Metropolitan Opera Auditions in 1984 and in the Merola Opera Auditions 1979 and was awarded full scholarships to the Aspen Music Festival and to the Music Academy of the West.
He made his professional opera debut in 1980 as Il Commendatore in “Don Giovanni” with the Boise Civic Opera and was a studio artist with the Minnesota Opera Company performing the roles of Dr. Krohn in the World Premiere of Susa’s “Black River” and Zuniga in “Carmen” at the Tyrone Guthrie Theater.
Mr. Graham performed with the Connecticut Grand Opera in the American stage premiere of Busoni’s “Turandot” in 1986 directed by Arvin Brown with whom he also worked at the Long Wharf Theater in “Lost in the Stars” the same year. He has sung in three productions with National Grand Opera on Long Island including the role of The Old Hebrew in “Samson and Delilah” with James McCracken also in 1986
He has also sung with the Richmond Choral Society, the Summit Chorale, the Bronx Opera, Il Piccolo Theatro Dell Opera, the Haddenfield, N.J. Symphony, the Staten Island Chamber Players, the June Opera Fesival in Princeton, N.J. and the American Symphony Orchestra in Avery Fisher Hall as one of the featured soloists in Bruckner’s Te Deum.
In 1987, Mr. Graham was one of ten singers chosen to inaugurate the first year of the Opera Music Theater Institute in Newark, N.J. supervised by Jerome Hines, Frank Corsaro and Henry Lewis.
He toured throughout the United States with a vocal trio under the auspices of Community Concerts and Columbia Artists Management in the autumn of 1988 and before leaving for Germany in 1990 performed the role of Raimondo in “Lucia di Lammermoor” with Nashville Opera under the direction of Richard Buckley.
Since residing in Germany, Mr. Graham has been featured in recitals, oratorio performances and in chamber opera in Kassel, Lüneburg, Hamburg, Herne and Hannover as well as appearing in “The Phantom of the Opera” in Hamburg and Stuttgart playing several roles.