Soprano Mary Grogan

Soprano Mary Grogan is a passionate advocate for the arts, with the lifelong dream of bringing opera to the masses. She is the founder and general director of two successful nonprofit arts organizations- the ÓperaMaya Foundation which since 2010 has brought opera free of charge to the Yucatán Peninsula through its cultural festival entitled, the OperaMaya International Summer Music Festival, regional workshops, composition competitions, young artist training programs, concert series and sister festival, the Viva! Maya Culture Festival held in Bloomington, Indiana since 2017. Her newest project, Nantahala Opera, of the Western Carolina Great Smokie Mountains builds on the successful nonprofit model she developed with OperaMaya to reach the underserved populations of her native North Carolina and Eastern Tennessee.

Former Artistic Director of the State Symphony Orchestra of Quintana Roo, Mexico,  and professor of Voice at Indiana Wesleyan University, she remains a much sought-after vocal clinician, speaker, teacher, and performer.  

Perhaps best known for her work joining government and private sectors to promote and enrich the musical culture throughout the Yucatán Peninsula while developing sustainable cultural tourism strategies used in defense of the Maya culture and language, Ms. Grogan's international portfolio career makes her a pioneer in the field of musical entrepreneurship.

Winning an Independent Artist federal grant from Americans for the Arts and a host of awards ranging from Distinguished Alumnus of the School of Music at the University of South Florida to Recognition of Cultural Advancement Honors from the states of Quintana Roo, Yucatán, and Campeche, Mexico. Ms. Grogan divides her time between Mexico and the United States, where she further divides herself between Bloomington, Indiana, serving as an Advisory Council Member for the Arts Alliance of Greater Bloomington, and Bryson City, North Carolina, in the heart of the Great Smoky Mountains, Nantahala National Forest, where she resides in the house she helped her grandfather build when she was only five years old. Two miles from the Appalachian Trail, she enjoys white-water rafting, hiking, tubing, gardening, and spending time with family and friends.