Denice Raymundo Grant
Denice Raymundo Grant, a singer and pianist, was born in Brazil, the daughter of missionary parents. She began her musical studies at age four. When her family moved to Portugal in 1973, she studied piano at the Lisbon National Conservatory, and two years later, when they moved to Canada, she was able to continue study at the Toronto Royal Conservatory.
Grant completed a B.Mus. Ed. at Walla Walla College in 1983, where she studied voice with Marianne Scriven and piano with Leonard Richter. She subsequently received an M.Mus. in piano performance and pedagogy from Northern Illinois University, where she was a student of Donald Walker. She is currently pursuing a Doctor of Music Arts Degree at the University of Washington where she is a student of Craig Shepphard.
Following a move to Seattle in 1990, she was employed as company pianist by the Pacific Northwest Ballet, and then by the Houston Ballet in the year 2000. Grant subsequently returned to the Seattle area where she now has a piano and voice studio, is involved in chamber music, and has accompanied several professional choruses in the area, including the Bellevue Chamber Chorus, the Northwest Girl Choir, the Choir of the Sound, and The Seattle Choral Company. She was a pianist in a 1999 recording by SCC of Carmina Burana.
Grant has been organist at Shoreline Calvin Presbyterian Church since the summer of 2002. She has also worked with the Seattle Opera, the Seattle Symphony Summer Sings, the Bellevue Symphony, and the Intiman Theatre. Most recently, she performed Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 23 in A Major with the Seattle Philharmonic. Future performances include Mendelssohn's Piano Concerto No. 1 in G Minor with the Rainier Symphony in April 2006 and Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 4 in G Major in November 2006. She is also planning to record a sacred music CD in the near future.
Grant, who recently rejoined the Adventist church, divides her musical career between singing and playing the piano, and following in the steps of her missionary father. She frequently preaches and performs, wanting to create a greater awareness of how much our heavenly Father loves us and how He yearns to be re-united with us.
Her vocal career is devoted mainly to missionary endeavors such as fundraisers for charities and causes, the closest to her heart being the Huruma Children's Home in N'gong Hills, Kenya, an orphanage started by Mama Ziporah. She recently released a sacred vocal CD titled, If My People . . . Who are Called by My Name . . . Will Pray . . . .
dg/ds/2007
Sources: Information provided by Denice Raymundo Grant, 2007; Personal Knowledge.