Grant Wenaus

Pianist, Vocal Coach, Music Director

Master Teacher of Music and Music Education

Email: grant.wenaus@nyu.edu

Grant\r\nWenaus, born in Regina, Canada, joined the Program in Vocal Performance\r\nat the Steinhardt School at New York University in 2001. Since then, he\r\nhas conducted NYU productions including "The Magic Flute", "L'enfant et\r\nles sortilèges", "Dido and Aeneus", "Orpheus in the Underworld", "Floyd\r\nCollins" and "Ragtime". He has helped to create the program in\r\nCollaborative Piano Studies and several of his students have gone on to\r\ncareers as Broadway pianists and conductors. Equally comfortable with\r\nclassical and musical theatre repertoire, his prior appointment was at\r\nthe University of Michigan as a faculty music director for the Musical\r\nTheatre Program for three years ("Of Thee I Sing", "A Little Night\r\nMusic" and "Anything Goes"). In addition, he was the music director for\r\nthe Interlochen Arts Camp and MPulse All-State Music Theatre Programs\r\nfor seven summers.

Dr. Wenaus is also on staff as a vocal coach\r\nand collaborative pianist for the Florence Voice Seminar, a summer\r\nopera program in Italy, alongside Benita Valente and Sally Wolf. During\r\nthe summer of 2008 he served as a Principle Coach at the Glimmerglass\r\nOpera and performed several recitals with its Young American Artist\r\nprogram. He also created a new program for singers and pianists in\r\nSpanish Vocal Music for NYU Steinhardt's Summer Study program which\r\nwill be offered again in May 2009.

In New York, Dr. Wenaus is the\r\nprimary pianist for the New Voices Collective, a concert series for\r\nBroadway composers and performers, where he worked with such luminaries\r\nas John Kander, Jason Robert Brown, Victoria Clark, Rebecca Luker and\r\nBrian D'Arcy James.

As a pianist, his work is eclectic: he was\r\nthe head of music for the Toledo Opera Outreach and Education program,\r\nplayed keyboards in the Broadway touring production of "Grease!", and\r\nperformed aboard the Italian Costa Riviera Cruise Liner. A highlight of\r\nhis performing career was playing alongside Martin Katz at Carnegie\r\nHall with such singers as Sylvia McNair and Sanford Sylvan in a tribute\r\nto Isaac Stern. He also worked for two summers as an opera repetiteur\r\nfor Seiji Ozawa at the Tanglewood Music Festival, participating in the\r\n50th Anniversary of the American Premiere production of "Peter Grimes".\r\nThe recipient of the Sir Ernest MacMillan Canadian National Endowment\r\nfor Piano Accompanying, he also freelanced in Toronto for several\r\nyears, working for the Canadian Opera Company, Tapestry New Opera\r\nWorks, Opera Ontario and The University of Toronto.