Taylor Stayton, a native of Sidney, Ohio, is a third-year resident artist at The Academy of Vocal Arts, where he studies with renowned voice teacher Bill Schuman. In January 2010, he made his professional operatic debut at the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma as Fenton in a new Franco Zeffirelli production of Falstaff, alongside the Falstaff of Renato Bruson and the Ford of Carlos Alvarez, conducted by Asher Fisch. Later this season, he will make his American operatic debut as Osiride in Rossini's Mosé in Egitto with Chicago Opera Theater under Leonardo Vordoni.

At AVA he has sung the roles of Ferrando in Così fan tutte, Gaston in La traviata, Lord Percy in Anna Bolena, Ernesto in Don Pasquale, Arturo in Lucia di Lammermoor,and Fenton in Falstaff, under the direction of Tito Capobianco. He has sung Arturo in Lucia di Lammermoor with Opera New Jersey, where he also covered the role of Belmonte in Die Entführung aus dem Serail.

Mr. Stayton has won several prestigious vocal competitions, including First Prize in the Licia Albanese-Puccini Foundation International Voice Competition, 2009, and third place in the Loren B. Zachary Voice Competition, 2009.

Mr. Stayton earned his Bachelor of Music at Ohio State University. While in the Martina Arroyo Foundation's “Prelude to Performance” program, he performed the roles of Ernesto in Don Pasquale and Ferrando in Così fan tutte. The New York Times commented that Mr. Stayton "exudes good health and promise" and the New York Daily News, after noting that he "did an astonishing job with the elegant ‘Un aura amorosa'" went on to say: "For such a young tenor to be so accomplished the nuances of Mozart is astonishing." His other operatic roles include Nerone in L'incoronazione di Poppea and Nemorino in L'elisir d'amore.