Andrea Bradford

Andrea Bradford (born December 19, 1949) is an American soprano, opera singer, educator, and businesswoman. A graduate of the Oberlin Conservatory of Music and the Boston University College of Fine Arts, Bradford has maintained concurrent careers in performance, education, and business. On the stage she is best known for her lengthy association with the Opera Company of Boston. As a teacher she has taught voice on the faculties of the Tanglewood Music Center and Xavier University of Louisiana. She is the former director of minority and multicultural affairs at Columbia Business School, and has worked as a business executive for a variety of American corporations.

Early life and education The daughter of Dr. Henry Bradford Jr. and Nell Lane Bradford, Andrea Bradford was born on December 19, 1949, in Huntsville, Alabama. Andrea's early music studies were with her parents. She studied piano from the time she was five years old until she was 20. In December 1966 she was the soprano soloist in the OC music department's presentation of George Frideric Handel's Messiah. She transferred to the Oberlin Conservatory of Music in Ohio where she graduated with Bachelors of Music degree in vocal performance in 1970.

She pursued graduate music studies at the Boston University College of Fine Arts (BUCFA) where she graduated with a Master of Music in 1973. and in the summer of 1974 she studied opera at the American Institute of Musical Studies in Graz, Austria. She also studied singing with Donna Roll and John Balme.

Career While studying at Boston University, Bradford concurrently worked in variety positions; including director of the Community Center of Boston, In 1976 she joined the music faculty of Xavier University of Louisiana where she gave a faculty recital in 1977. In 1991 she performed at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, and in 1992 she performed with the Boston Lyric Opera in Kurt Weill's Lost in the Stars. She returned to The Kitchen in 2001 as Grace in Jenkins's jazz opera Three Willies

During her career Bradford has also worked as national director of college recruiting for KPMG, vice president of organizational consulting and career management at Right Management Consultants, and as operations manager for West-Park Presbyterian Church.