Artistic Director, Anne Duraski, began her early musical training in church choir and band. Her aspiration as a youngster was to be a symphonic trumpet player. She went to Auburn University with that goal in mind, but half way through her undergraduate training found her true musical interest was not in instrumental music, but in vocal music and opera. She changed her courses, changed her major and never looked back in pursuing her interest.

She attended the University of Alabama as a graduate voice major where she studied under Professor Edward White, her continuing teacher and mentor. “Mr. White inspired me, still inspires me, to love voice, opera, musical theater-any kind of outstanding singing. It is a lifelong passion for him, and by his example, a passion for his students.” Ms. Duraski followed in Mr. White’s footsteps by attending both Washington University in St. Louis and The Eastman School of Music for post-graduate studies. Following graduate school she attended programs of operatic training with several companies and summer programs: Aspen Music Institute, Sarasota Opera Company, New Orleans Opera and Chautauqua Summer Opera Institute. Her first international performance opportunity came when she was cast in the Rome Festival Opera’s summer production of Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro. From that experience she went on to spend the better part of three years singing in Europe, first in Opernhaus Zürich and then in the Schlesswig-Holsteinisches Landestheater in Flensburg, Germany.

Since moving to LaGrange in 1995 Ms. Duraski has been an integral part of the arts community. She has performed numerous times in the area as well as serving on the LaGrange Symphony Board and as a board member of the LaFayette Society for Performing Arts. Her greatest joy has been to see the tremendous support the community has given to LaGrange Lyric Theater Company and its productions and looks forward to its continuing growth.