Michael Lynn Ballam (born August 21, 1951) is an American opera singer, educator, and arts administrator. He is the founding general director of Utah Festival Opera and a professor of music at Utah State University. He has served on the faculty of the Music Academy of the West, where he also studied, and as a guest lecturer at Stanford, Yale, Catholic University and Manhattan School of Music. Biography Early life and education Michael Ballam was born in Logan, Utah to Grant Lamb Ballam, a pharmacist, and his wife, Marianne Fullmer. He was raised in River Heights, a town adjacent to Logan. Ballam credits his great-grandfather, an immigrant from Denmark, as an inspiration for his pursuit of music and Latter-day Saint Christianity. In 1956, he made his stage debut at Logan's Capitol Theatre, now the Ellen Eccles Theatre. He attended Sky View High School in the neighboring town of Smithfield, where he was cast as Wang Ta in Flower Drum Song and Billy Bigelow in Carousel, among others. After graduation, he attended the nearby Utah State University to pursue a degree in music education. He continued to sing in musical theater productions and expanded his repertoire to include opera, oratorio, and concert recital works. At the age of 24, Ballam became the youngest recipient of a Doctor of Music with Distinction in the history of Indiana University. At Indiana, his ten roles performed included Andres in Wozzeck, the title role in The Tales of Hoffmann, and Rodolfo in La bohème. In 1976, he was the first student to perform the title role in Parsifal. Professional work Ballam has performed with many national houses, including the San Francisco, Metropolitan, Houston Grand, Washington National, San Diego, and Michigan Operas. In 1978, he premiered the role of Beelzebub in Penderecki's opera Paradise Lost at Chicago Lyric Opera. Ballam also premiered the role of Coyote in Mollicone's 1998 opera Coyote Tales. Ballam's recital venues have included Kennedy Center, Carnegie Hall, Royal Albert Hall, Notre-Dame, and the Salt Lake Tabernacle. Ballam has also performed as a soloist at the White House and the Vatican. As an actor, Ballam has starred in Clubhouse Detectives, as the Apostle Paul in the BYU Studios biopic The Chosen Vessel, as well as Lucifer in the 1990 temple film used in the endowment ordinance. Ballam is also an oboist and pianist. Illness In 1987, Ballam was performing La Traviata in Caracas