As a teenager, George Gray played several instruments, of which he chose piano and organ for his studies. Then he injured his
hand, and had to quit his instruments. Instead, he studied music (working as a choirmaster for a period) and voice in New
York City, at Juilliard and at the New School.
As a singer, he started his career with the Connecticut Opera Company as the Witch in Hänsel und Gretel, then he
sang Max at Princeton University, Florestan in Greenville (1984), Cavaradossi in Colorado Springs, Canio at the
North Carolina Opera in Charlotte (1986). In 1987, he was Bacchus at the New Jersey Opera Festival in Lawrenceville (1987),
Tristan in Amsterdam, Otello in Seattle and Tristan in Columbus (Ohio). In 1988, Radames in Charlotte.
He made an international career, appearing as Waldemar (Gurrelieder) in Berlin in 1983 (his European debut) and in
Frankfurt in 1988, as Pollione at the Théâtre de la Monnaie in Brussels (1988), as Florestan at the Deutsche Oper
Berlin and as Tristan at the Vienna Staatsoper in 1989, as Énée at the Opéra Bastille and as Tristan
in Nancy in 1990. From 1988, he was regularly in Zürich, where he had considerable success as both Siegfrieds.
In the 1990s, he sang in Chicago, Karlsruhe, Wiesbaden, Kassel, at the Holland Festival, the Berlin Staatsoper (1992, Vasco da
Gama), Leipzig, Mainz, at the English National Opera (1995, Tristan), New Orleans (1993, Turiddu and Canio one one evening),
Flagstaff/Arizona (1996, Siegfried), San Francisco and Graz, where I heard him as a very interesting and quite impressive
Mephistopheles in Busoni's Doktor Faust (1995). Still in the early 2000s, he sang both Siegfrieds in Dallas.
Reference: Kutsch & Riemens
