Previously a soprano, Roland Beach (he/him) started testosterone in 2023. He’s excited to be in his first year at University of Western Ontario’s Don Wright Faculty of Music – training his new tenor voice, and escaping the stress of being trans under the current US administration. His work so far has spanned musical theater, operetta, and crossover-tinged solo performance. Roland studied music production and audio recording, receiving certificates from Northeast WI Technical College, where he learned from Grammy nominee Hans Christian. He also spent several years singing in and arranging for the Billboard-charting classical crossover trio REGINA. His favorite roles so far include Marmee in Little Women, Bunthorne in Patience, Strephon in Iolanthe, and Joe in the new musical Regular Joe. Passionate about raising the profile of trans people in the performing arts, Roland documented his vocal transformation on his Youtube channel and on his upcoming debut album “Corner of the Sky,” recorded over his first year on hormones!

Want to see some of Roland’s voice change? Here’s the title song from “Corner of the Sky”, showcasing Roland’s old voice (with a bit of harmony at the end from about 6 months on T):

Here’s “Blackbird”, a few months on T while his voice was just starting to change.

And here’s a casual cover of “All I Ask of You”, recorded almost 2 years on T: