Education

• D.M.A., Doctor of Musical Arts, University of North Texas, 2002
• M.M.E., Master of Music Education, North Texas State University, 1984
• B.A., Bachelor of Arts, Arkansas Tech University, 1979

Biography

Randal Rushing has led a distinguished career spanning five decades as a leading lyric tenor, performing a widely-varied body of repertoire on opera and concert stages worldwide.

He has performed internationally as a soloist throughout Europe, South Korea and Central America, and in major venues across the United States, including Carnegie Hall, Avery Fisher Hall, in the Lincoln Center in New York. The Chicago Symphony engaged him, the late Peter Schreier conducting, as tenor soloist for Handel’s Messiah and he made five appearances at Carnegie Hall, most recently singing the role of the Evangelist in Bach’s St. Matthew Passion with St. Cecilia Chorus after his solo début there in the Mozart Requiem, John Rutter, conductor, followed by the Mozart Requiem at the Rudolfinum in Prague. 

Among his upcoming performances are the Mozart and Verdi Requiems with the Rhodes Mastersingers and Memphis Symphony Orchestra, a recital of the music of Paul Dessau at the University of Memphis, and as a featured soloist with the Germantown Symphony and the South Arkansas Symphony.

Most recently, Dr. Rushing performed in a recital and completed a recording project of music of Ralph Vaughan Williams in London, with accompaniment from Vaughan Williams’ piano. He returned to Duisburg, Germany, where he continued his association with conductor/tenor Peter Schreier in masterclasses at the Musikhochschule Folkwang under the auspices of the Deutsche Schubert-Gesellschaft. He also returned to Washington, D.C. as a soloist in Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Stephan Albert’s Treestone with the 21st Century Consort at the Smithsonian Institute. His debut there was Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde. 

Other performances include Handel’s Messiah with the Korean National Chorus and Orchestra in Seoul and with Essex Chorale of New Jersey, a solo recital with the Memphis Chamber Music Society, Michael Tippett’s A Child of Our Time with the Rhodes Mastersingers and Memphis Symphony Orchestra, St. Louis Bach Society in Rossini’s Petit Messe Solennelle, and the U.S. premiere of Mendelssohn’s recently discovered Dürer Festmusik with AmorArtis Orchestra in New York City, Stephen Somary, conductor. 

Other notable performances include Lee Hoiby’s The Tempest with Dallas Opera; Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte with Opera Memphis and Theater der Stadt Heidelberg; the title role in The Student Prince with Treasure Coast Opera, The Merry Widow/Lustige Witwe with the San Antonio Symphony, Stadttheater Regensburg, and Stadttheater Luzern, Elijah with the Memphis Masterworks Chorale, Dave Brubeck’s To Hope, Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem, and Bach’s B Minor Mass with the Rhodes Mastersingers and MSO, and Britten’s Serenade, Canticle III - Still Falls the Rain, and Heart of the Matter with Frank Lloyd, hornist, and the Eroica Ensemble at the International Horn Symposium in Memphis. 

As a recipient of the Rotary International Foundation Ambassadorial Scholarship, Dr. Rushing studied at the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik in Köln, Germany. A three-year engagement followed with the Stadttheater Regensburg. He then affiliated with Theater der Stadt Heidelberg, while continuing to perform throughout Europe as a soloist, appearing regularly on German and Swiss national and cable television.

Dr. Rushing received his American training and degrees from the University of North Texas and Arkansas Tech University. He was named winner of the American Opera Auditions in New York, and after winning the Shreveport Singer of the Year Award, appeared as Don Ottavio in Mozart’s Don Giovanni with Shreveport Opera. He joined the voice faculty of the University of Memphis in 1990, where he served as Director of the Rudi E. Scheidt School of Music 2008-2015, before returning to full-time faculty status as Professor of Voice.