Soprano Jan Grissom, a local favorite since well before her celebrated 2005 appearance on “Prairie Home Companion,” will perform at Brenau University’s Pearce Auditorium at 8 p.m. Monday, Nov. 17. 

The final autumn showcase of artists presented by Brenau’s International Opera Center features the Georgia singer’s performing operatic specialties from Mozart to Mad Scenes. Admission is $7.50 at the door, but free to students. 

“Anyone who heard the ‘Prairie Home Companion’ broadcast of attended the show at Chastain Park in Atlanta already knows what a delightful personality and talented singer Jan Grissom is,” said William Fred Scott, Brenau’s artist in residence and the director of the International Opera Center. “This will be a glorious evening.”

Grissom has been a guest of leading opera companies and orchestras throughout North America and in Europe, including appearances with the Metropolitan Opera, the Houston Grand Opera, the Washington Opera and the Atlanta Opera.

She was born in Tupelo, Miss., more famous as the birthplace of Elvis Presley than of coloraturae. She began singing in church and junior high school, but after a debut concert performance with the Tupelo symphony when she was 16, the one-time high school cheerleader seemed destined to follow a less highbrow path in her musical pursuits. After junior college and while a student at the University of North Alabama, where she continued formal music studies, she worked summers at a theme park in Memphis performing a wide range of music in as many as eight shows a day – including a turn in which she channeled country star Crystal Gayle singing “Don’t It Make My Brown Eyes Blue.”

When she was a graduate student at the University of Houston, one of her instructors nudged her to try out for the Houston Opera Studio. Not only did she win a spot begin her professional career there, but also she was selected to sing there for Britain’s Prince Charles. 

Other credits include performances of top operatic roles with and symphonic concerts in San Francisco, Mobile, Memphis, Indianapolis, Dallas, Baltimore, Portland and many other America cities. In Europe, she has appeared repeatedly at the Hamburg Staatsoper.  She was the recipient of the MacAllister First Place Award and Critic's Choice Award and a George London Career Grant. She was also named Washington Opera's 1994 Artist of the Year.  

During the past two years, Grissom has taught voice at Mississippi State University.  She currently has a vocal studio in the Atlanta area and teaches voice at North Metro School of Music. 

For a preview of what to expect when Grissom appears at Brenau, you can listen to her entire performance on the Prairie Home Companion at http://prairiehome.publicradio.org/programs/2005/06/25/

ABOUT BRENAU – Founded in 1878, Brenau University currently enrolls about 2,600 students in graduate, undergraduate and preparatory programs in the Academy; Women’s College; Evening and Weekend College; and Online College. The main campus of the Georgia-based liberal arts institution is in Gainesville with satellite campuses located in suburban Atlanta, Augusta and Kings Bay. Brenau’s 2009  ranking as the 10th-best higher education value in the Southeast by U.S. News & World Report marks the university’s third consecutive year in that position for the magazine’s America's Best Colleges guidebook.