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Edmund LeRoy, baritone, holds the Master of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees from the Juilliard School where he was a full scholarship student of Hans Heinz. Concentrating in the recital and concert repertoire, Dr. LeRoy was twice awarded the Enrico Caruso Memorial Prize at Juilliard.

He was named the winner of the 1972 Walter W. Naumburg Vocal Competition. Announced in Town Hall, his prize included a cash award of $2,500 and support for other engagements. The judges included Max Rudolf, Marion Anderson,Phyllis Curtain, Jan DeGaeani, Maureen Forrester, Charles Wadsworth and William Warfield.

He made his New York recital debut at Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center. He has since concertized on three continents in solo concerts, with orchestra, and in radio broadcasts, singing most of the solo song repertoire of the nineteenth century. After a recital in St. Louis, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch remarked that he “remains a remarkably ingenuous artist, free of theatrics, free of affectation. His means are subtle, and with them he continues to draw listeners deeply into whatever world the poet and composer have sought to portray.”

Dr. LeRoy has sung the part of Jesus in both Passions of J. S. Bach many times in the past two decades. Other performed solo repertoire with orchestra include the baritone parts in works such as Mendelssohn’s Elijah and St. Paul, Bach’s B-Minor Mass and Magnificat, Handel’s Messiah, Jephtha, Solomon, Henze’s Fünf neapolitanische Lieder, Martin’s Monologe aus “Jedermann” and many other works. Venues have included the Aspen Music Festival, New York’s Lincoln Center and Town Hall, the Bethlehem Bach Festival, the Winter Park Bach Festival, and others.

Dr. LeRoy has premiered many new works, including John Perkins’s Andrea del Sarto, a monodrama (with St. Louis Symphony), Rhian Samuel’s Rondeau, Within a Dream, and Three Songs, Ellen Taafe Zwilich’s Einsame Nacht. He also participated in the first American staging of Jean-Philippe Rameau’s “Les Sauvages” from Les Indes galantes at the University of Chicago with Albert Fuller conducting.

Dr. LeRoy is also an accomplished organist. His undergraduate degree from Furman University was in organ, and he earned a Master of Sacred Music degree from Union Theological Seminary in New York with organ as his major instrument. He has played organ recitals at many churches including the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York. Presently he serves as organist for the Rodenberg Chapel at Franke at Seaside in Mount Pleasant, SC.

Dr. LeRoy is a long-time member of the National Association of Teachers of Singing and the American Guild of Organists. He co-founded the Central Florida chapter of NATS with colleague Novie Greene. His students have pursued diverse careers. Some have become lawyers, advertising agents, and educators. Others are performing in the world of opera today on stages such as Covent Garden, the New York City Opera, and the Metropolitan Opera. For 26 years, Dr. LeRoy was head of the voice area at Rollins College in Winter Park, FL. He was made an Emeritus Professor at his retirement in 2009.

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Excerpt from The New York Times review, May 13, 1973

"For most young singers these days, opera is the thing to sing. Hoping to encourage renewed interest in the art song repertory and its interpretation, the Walter W. Naumburg Foundation sponsored an art-song interpretation competition.. Mr. LeRoy... was truly a recital and not just a demonstration of 'his' ability to sing correctly in several languages. His vocalism was indeed commendable, and his enunciation of French and German, as well as English, was a joy to hear...obviously has a special feeling for songs and what they can communicate, and he revealed a gift for projecting that feeling with his listeners." Alan Hughes