Dylon Crain
Adjunct Faculty, Department of Music and Theatre
Dylon Crain, tenor, a native of Louisville, Kentucky, is a versatile performer equally at home on the operatic stage, the concert platform, and in contemporary music.
Crain’s 2026–27 season includes covering Count Almaviva in Il barbiere di Siviglia with Kentucky Opera, performing Der vierte Jude and Ein Sklave in Richard Strauss’s Salome, and appearing as tenor soloist in Mozart’s Coronation Mass with the Cincinnati Choral Society and Blue Ash Montgomery Symphony Orchestra. His season also contains a multi-city recital tour with pianist Dr. Paige Crain of their program Becoming a Redwood: Art Songs by Women Composers.
Crain’s recent performances include Actor 1 in All Is Calm with Kentucky Opera and Harlekin in Der Kaiser von Atlantis with the Louisville Orchestra. He previously appeared with Opera Maine, where he performed the role of Paul in Gareth Williams’ Rocking Horse Winner and covered Don Ramiro (La Cenerentola). Additional operatic credits include Tamino (Die Zauberflöte), Don Ottavio (Don Giovanni), Ernesto (Don Pasquale), Martin (The Tender Land), and Don Basilio/Don Curzio (Le nozze di Figaro), among others.
A sought-after concert soloist, Crain is frequently heard as the Swan in Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana and has performed major works by J. S. Bach (Mass in B minor, Weihnachtsoratorium, Magnificat), Mozart (Requiem, Spatzenmesse, Krönungmesse), Handel (Messiah, Dixit dominus) and Zelenka (Missa Omnium Sanctorum) with groups such as the Paducah Symphony Orchestra, the Johnson City Symphony Orchestra, the Northeastern Pennsylvania Symphony, the Lexington Symphony, the Louisville Orchestra, and more. He has appeared as a soloist with ensembles such as the Artefact Ensemble, Louisville Chamber Choir, Bourbon Baroque, Kentucky Bach Choir, and the Louisville Master Chorale.
Crain has commissioned and/or premiered works by composers such as James May, Angel Gómez Ramirez, Alex Berko, and Brittany Green, and regularly presents new American art songs in recital. He was featured as the tenor soloist in Mammoth, a new work by Teddy Abrams performed by the Louisville Orchestra alongside Yo-Yo Ma and Davóne Tines inside Mammoth Cave as part of Ma’s Our Common Nature series.
Crain is currently an Instructor of Voice at Centre College in Danville, Kentucky, and an Instructor of Musical Theatre Voice at Xavier University in Cincinnati, Ohio.
Dylon Crain, tenor, a native of Louisville, Kentucky, is a versatile performer equally at home on the operatic stage, the concert platform, and in contemporary music.
Crain’s 2026–27 season includes covering Count Almaviva in Il barbiere di Siviglia with Kentucky Opera, performing Der vierte Jude and Ein Sklave in Richard Strauss’s Salome, and appearing as tenor soloist in Mozart’s Coronation Mass with the Cincinnati Choral Society and Blue Ash Montgomery Symphony Orchestra. His season also contains a multi-city recital tour with pianist Dr. Paige Crain of their program Becoming a Redwood: Art Songs by Women Composers.
Crain’s recent performances include Actor 1 in All Is Calm with Kentucky Opera and Harlekin in Der Kaiser von Atlantis with the Louisville Orchestra. He previously appeared with Opera Maine, where he performed the role of Paul in Gareth Williams’ Rocking Horse Winner and covered Don Ramiro (La Cenerentola). Additional operatic credits include Tamino (Die Zauberflöte), Don Ottavio (Don Giovanni), Ernesto (Don Pasquale), Martin (The Tender Land), and Don Basilio/Don Curzio (Le nozze di Figaro), among others.
A sought-after concert soloist, Crain is frequently heard as the Swan in Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana and has performed major works by J. S. Bach (Mass in B minor, Weihnachtsoratorium, Magnificat), Mozart (Requiem, Spatzenmesse, Krönungmesse), Handel (Messiah, Dixit dominus) and Zelenka (Missa Omnium Sanctorum) with groups such as the Paducah Symphony Orchestra, the Johnson City Symphony Orchestra, the Northeastern Pennsylvania Symphony, the Lexington Symphony, the Louisville Orchestra, and more. He has appeared as a soloist with ensembles such as the Artefact Ensemble, Louisville Chamber Choir, Bourbon Baroque, Kentucky Bach Choir, and the Louisville Master Chorale.
Crain has commissioned and/or premiered works by composers such as James May, Angel Gómez Ramirez, Alex Berko, and Brittany Green, and regularly presents new American art songs in recital. He was featured as the tenor soloist in Mammoth, a new work by Teddy Abrams performed by the Louisville Orchestra alongside Yo-Yo Ma and Davóne Tines inside Mammoth Cave as part of Ma’s Our Common Nature series.
Crain is currently an Instructor of Voice at Centre College in Danville, Kentucky, and an Instructor of Musical Theatre Voice at Xavier University in Cincinnati, Ohio.