Graham Clark

Graham began his studies at Loughborough in 1961 where he completed his DLC in Physical Education until 1964 and returned for a postgraduate degree in 1970. Graham received an Honorary Doctor of Letters in 1999 and a Centenary Honorary Degree in 2009.

Graham was born in Littleborough Lancashire in 1941 and began his passion for singing at his local church choir where he sang as a treble. Although the alumnus had an extraordinary talent for singing, he initially wanted to become a PE teacher and began his journey toward the qualification in the 1960’s. Graham Clark started his career as a teacher after graduating and began his postgraduate degree in Recreation Management a few years later. After moving on from his career in teaching, Graham worked as a senior regional officer of the Sports Council whilst pursuing music and singing in the evenings with amateur societies before training as a singer with Bruce Boyce.

It was in 1975 that Graham made his first professional opera debut with the Royal Opera House at a charity gala to raise funds for damage inflicted by a cyclone in Darwin, Australia. The gala was in connection with the Scottish Opera where Graham received the offer of a contract and made his debut that same year.  The alumnus’ stage career continued to flourish at the English National Opera from the years 1978 until 1985. That same year was the start of Graham’s international as he made his debut at the Metropolitan Opera in New York as Steva in Jenůfa.

The alumnus dedicated over 40 years to working as an Opera singer and transformed into many roles during his career including Captain Vere in Billy Budd, the Bishop of Budoja in Palestrina and Herodias in Salomé. Throughout his career, Graham collected many accolades to reward him for his talent and was nominated for many awards. He was a three-time nominee including an Emmy for the Outstanding Individual Achievement in Opera for his performance in the Ghost of Versailles.  He was awarded the Sir Laurence Olivier Award for his performance of Mephistopheles at English National Opera in 1986, the Sir Reginald Goodall Memorial Award by the Wagner Society, London in 2001 and the Sherwin Award by The Wagner Society of Southern California in 2009.

Graham made over 400 stage appearances with 276 of these performances being his iconic characters, Loge and Mime. Graham made his last major stage appearance in September 2019.

Graham leaves behind a great legacy and will be dearly missed by his family and friends.