
Grey Rose Grant
composer | performer | librettist
GREY GRANT (she/they) is a composer, performer, and librettist, whose work frequently involves a transdisciplinary, collaborative effort between herself and other artists. Much of their current work revolves around identity, the environment, and place. Her music: “[Crafts] a work that is moving, evocative and, by the end, exhausting (in the best sense)” and writes “demanding music with precision and nuance.” (Michigan Daily).
Grey’s recent works include Decomposition/Little Histories/Renewal, a new song cycle commissioned for trans baritone, Elliot Franks, Light of the Moon, an electroacoustic work for bassist Charlie Ruth Welty, Glitter Orgy, an evening-length dance-theater work for chamber musicians and performers exploring trauma recovery and sexual liberation, and The Precipice, a chamber-rock opera co-composed with Karl Ronneburg, for Fifth Wall Performing Arts.
Grey’s opera Michigan Trees: A Guide to the Trees of Michigan and the Great Lakes Region (2019) was the recipient of the BMI Student Composer Award in 2021. An excerpt from this opera is featured in the newly published New Music Shelf Anthology of New Music: Trans & Non Binary Voices, Vol. 1. An analysis of their work Drones for the In-Between Times for choir, by theorist Poe M. Allphin has been published in the Trans Quarterly Review. She has received commissions from Contemporaneous Ensemble, Beth Morrison Projects, the Gabriela Lena Frank Creative Academy of Music, Tesla Quartet, Front Porch, The Detroit Women’s Chorus, Lisa Keeney, and more.
Grey is a co-founder alongside Karl Ronneburg and a creative producer of Fifth Wall Performing Arts, an artist-led experimental performing arts organization based in MI and NYC. Fifth Wall Performing Arts began its life in Karl's former living room, where founders Karl and Grey produced an adaptation of Philip Glass' "Einstein on the Beach", entitled "Einstein in the HOUSE". The wildly successful event, the video of which was tweeted by Philip Glass (twice) and called "bonkers insane brilliant" by Nico Muhly, was the catalyst for Fifth Wall to continue their work producing new works of experimental theatre and music.


As a performer, Grey has been an active vocalist, singing with Fifth Wall Performing Arts, the Regenerate! Orchestra, Front Porch, and in collaboration with pianist and composer Dayton Hare. She loves championing the works of her friends, such as Evan Chambers, Clay Gonzalez, Karl Ronneburg, Nadine Dystant-Miller, Ari Sussman, and Annika Socolofsky. As a librettist, they have written numerous operas, song cycles, and lyrics for herself and musical friends. As an arts administrator, they have worked for numerous performing arts organizations such as Connecticut Summerfest, The Write Hear, Right Now concert series, the Regenerate! Orchestra, and Guerilla Opera. They currently work at The Riverside Arts Center in Ypsilanti, Michigan.
North Carolina born, they currently reside in Michigan. They received both their B.M and M.A from the University of Michigan (2016, 2022) Her artistic mentors include: Gabriela Lena Frank. Evan Chambers, Keith Taylor, Stephen Rush, Kristin Kuster, and Paul Schoenfeld. Grey's music has been featured at numerous festivals, conferences, and concerts across the United States.