Edmund-Zelotes Toliver

Born on Long Island, New York, Zelotes Edmund Toliver studied at Illinois Wesleyan University earning a Bachelor of Music Education Degree with Honors. He received his Master of Music and Doctor of Musical of Arts Degrees at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, where he sang major roles in fourteen different operas. His principal teachers of voice were Professor David Nott and Professor Willis C. Patterson. In Vienna, Austria, he studied with Prof. Franz Schuch-Tovini and won prizes in many international music competitions, including: The International Verdi Voice Competition; Buseto, Italy; The Sixth International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow, and was a Regional Winner in the Metropolitan Opera Auditions in Washington, D.C. Mr. Toliver has received a career study award from the Grinnell Foundation, a National Opera Institute study grant and a professional study grant from the Metropolitan Opera National Council.