FELIX GRAHAM, ED.D.C.T.
ARTIST BIO
Felix Graham, ED.D.C.T., is an NYC-based musician, writer and teaching artist whose practice explores the juxtaposition of voice, gender & identity. He has had two careers as a performer: initially as a classical singer & pianist, then post-transition branching into cabaret/queer musical theatre, which included a role in Decadence, where he was the first openly trans-masculine singer to perform at the Friar’s Club.
As a choral composer/director, his work explores ensemble singing as performance art, examining the shift in interpretation of the art music canon when performed by GNC voices/ensembles. His first large-scale composition, Stations of the Lost: A Trans Requiem, was written as a subversion of the traditional liturgical memorial, using the gnostic poetry of the gender-bending occultist Alastair Crowley – the “wickedest man on earth.”
As a teaching artist, Dr, Graham works with trans/GNC singers and gives workshops nationally on trans voice, music & identity, and creating secure musical learning spaces for marginalized communities. He is currently the artistic director of TRANScend & founder of TRANScend Choral & Community Music Foundation – a non-profit dedicated to gender-inclusive music and music education in New York City.
ARTIST STATEMENT
My work as an artist can be neatly categorized as Before Transition and After Transition. Before Transition was escapism – dysphoric sublimation through the performance of highly-stylized gender roles in opera and classical music. After Transition has been deconstructing gender and voice and allowing myself the freedom to put my deepest feelings about (and rebellion against) gender into physical form. I work in multiple complementary disciplines, all of which examine the intersection of singing, gender, and identity. The underlying premise of all my artistic output, regardless of the medium, is inserting non-conforming voices into places society has decided we don’t belong.
Performance: Quando corpus morietur, from Rossini’s Stabat Mater
Composition: Tantum Ergo - Communion Anthem (2022) — sung by TRANScend at St. John’s in the Village