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Dr. Chad Payton
Dr. Chad R. Payton is an Assistant Professor of Music at Delta State University. He teaches private voice lessons, the sophomore aural skills sequence, and the music general education course Experiencing Music (MUS 115). Dr. Payton received his Doctorate of Musical Arts in Vocal Performance from the University of Kansas, and both his Masters and Bachelors degrees in Vocal Performance from the University of Missouri.
He has been a teacher of voice for nearly ten years, and is a member of the National Association of Teachers of Singing. Prior to moving to Cleveland, Mississippi, Dr. Payton taught as a graduate teaching assistant at the University of Kansas, where he taught private voice lessons, and team-taught English Vocal Literature. He also served as an Adjunct Voice Instructor at Avila University in Kansas City, Missouri. During his Masters studies, he taught as a graduate teaching assistant at the University of Missouri, where he taught private voice lessons and Voice Class for Non-Majors.
In the summers, Dr. Payton serves as the General Manager for Seagle Music Colony, the nation’s oldest young artist training program for opera and musical theatre, which is located in the Adirondack Mountains in New York. As General Manager, he serves as an interim voice teacher, and organizes and oversees the daily rehearsal, staging, and performance schedule for six fully-staged productions in eight weeks.
Dr. Payton switched to countertenor repertoire in 2005, having made both his Carnegie Hall and Kennedy Center debuts as a tenor in Michael Ching’s opera, Corps of Discovery: A Musical Journey. Since then he has found success in both local and regional competitions, including National Association of Teachers of Singing, National Association of Teachers of Singing Artist Award, and Music Teachers National Association. He is a proponent of oratorio literature, often seen with regional orchestras such as the Quincy Symphony Society in Illinois, the Saint Joseph Symphony, Columbia Civic Orchestra, and the University of Missouri’s Philharmonic Orchestra in Missouri. Frequent oratorio engagements include the Alto Soloist in Handel’s Messiah, Bach’s B-Minor Mass, St. John’s Passion, and St. Matthew’s Passion, and Orff’s Carmina Burana. Dr. Payton is a commonly featured guest soloist on the University of Missouri Concert Series, Odyssey Chamber Music Series, and is a founding Alto member of Voices of Prometheus, a professional American vocal consort.
Dr. Payton’s doctoral dissertation is titled A Performer’s Analysis of Lori Laitman’s Men with Small Heads and Jake Heggie’s Encountertenor, in which he examines two twentieth-century song cycles written specifically for countertenor. Additional research interests include the performance practice of French mélodies, in particular those of Reynaldo Hahn and Henri Duparc.
Upcoming performances include the Alto Soloist in Handel’s Messiah with the University of Missouri Concert Series, as well as an international tour with his chamber ensemble, Payton and the Pipes, to Mexico in late December of 2011.
Dr. Chad Payton
Department of Music
Box 3256
Delta State University
Cleveland, MS 38733
662.846.4783