New Orleans Snags Mezzo-Soprano Luretta Bybee For Loyola Position

Ms. Bybee recently sang Fricka/Flosshilde
in the Ring Cycle with Minnesota Concert
Opera and Mary in The Flying Dutchman
at Opera Carolina.

"Loyola University has recruited opera star Luretta Bybee to help train a new generation of singers at the New Orleans school. The mezzo-soprano brings extra luster to Loyola's voice program, which has produced many top singers in recent decades, among them, her husband, Greer Grimsley. Bybee will join the music faculty in August. She is relocating from Boston where she served as part of the leadership team for the New England Conservatory's Opera Studies program. Loyola spokesman Mikel Pak said Bybee and Grimsley were drawn to New Orleans because of family connections and the Crescent City's rich opera heritage. Both singers tour internationally and have performed in New Orleans. This February, Bybee appeared in the New Orleans Opera production of Massenet's Cendrillon. As an associate professor of music at Loyola, Bybee will teach studio voice classes—which are one-on-one private lessons with students. She joins a program that helped form many contemporary singers, including international stars such as Alfred Walker, Bryan Hymel and Melody Moore, and respected American singers such as Sarah Jane McMahon, Suzanne DuPlantis and Brandy Lynn Hawkins. [Source]