Everett McCorvey at the American Antiquarian Society

Angela Brown personifies the ideal soprano: sheer vocal power; luxurious finesse; and shimmering, high pianissimos. With captivating star power, she unites opera, pops, and gospel in one sensational voice. She has graced the leading opera and symphonic stages on six continents including Lincoln Center, The Kennedy Center, National Opera of Paris, Vienna State Opera, Capetown (South Africa) Opera, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Edmonton Opera, Calgary Philharmonic, Shanghai World Expo, Moscow Performing Arts Center, The Metropolitan Opera, Bilbao Opera, Teatro La Fenice, Hamburg Opera, Opera Philadelphia, Cincinnati Opera, Pittsburgh Opera, and more. She has been presented in solo recital throughout the United States, Canada, Spain, New Zealand, China, and Africa. She is a featured artist on the two-time Grammy Award® winning recording Ask Your Mama and the voice of contemporary African American opera roles of Addie Parker (Charlie Parker’s Yardbird) and Cilla (Margaret Garner) as well as the timehonored roles of Tosca, Aida, Amelia (Un ballo in Maschera), Elisabetta (Don Carlo), and Leonora (Il Trovatore).

2026 holds the world premiere of Phenomenal Queen: Coretta Scott King by James Lee III with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra in March, a residency at Jackson State University, and the Naxos release of the world premiere recording of Nkeiru Okoye’s When the Caged Bird Sings. Last season Angela was in residency at Ole Miss (The University of Mississippi) for a concert and masterclass, sang for the Indianapolis Opera’s 50th Anniversary Gala and a concert with the Indianapolis Winds Symphony, had co-hosting duties for the American Piano Awards, and returned to Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra for their summer series. Performances in 2024 included two world premieres. Angela sang the soprano solo for award-winning composer Nkeiru Okoye’s new work When the Caged Bird Sings. The work was inspired by the life of Dr. Maya Angelou and performed for the University of Michigan’s University Musical Society’s series. Featuring four soloists, a narrator, full orchestra, and chorus, Angela sang the principal soprano role of “Cerise’s Mother.” Angela reprised the role of Addie Parker in Charlie Parker’s Yardbird with the Indianapolis Opera. Angela premiered Presidential Service Medal recipient Bill Banfield’s Symphony 14 (Revelation) for soprano and symphony with the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra. She sang a selection from Okoye’s opera Harriet Tubman: When I Crossed that Line to Freedom with Louisville Orchestra.

Angela’s highly successful Metropolitan Opera debut in the title role of Aida captured instant attention from international print and broadcast media and catapulted Angela onto the world’s prestigious stages. Headlines from The New York Times read: “At last an Aida,” and CBS Weekend News proclaimed: “the future of opera has arrived!” followed by features on the front page of The New York Times, on CNN, in Oprah Magazine, Essence Magazine, Ebony Magazine, Classical Singer, Reader’s Digest, and Psychology Today.

Angela is the founder of Morning Brown, Inc., her nonprofit dedicated to the development of multicultural role models and audiences in the performing arts. The success of her signature show, Opera…from a Sistah’s Point of View©1997 provided the momentum and cornerstone for an array of outreach and educational programs that have been presented in 20 USA states under the auspices of Morning Brown. From orchestras and opera companies to libraries, schools, and music clubs, the programs have reached thousands of elementary, secondary, and university students as well as intergenerational audiences. (www.morningbrown.org)

A celebrated role model for the next generation of multicultural singers, Cincinnati Opera and Opera Birmingham released a virtual performance of Opera…from a Sistah’s Point of View in 2021 featuring rising young artists baritone Reginald Smith, Jr., tenor Jamez McCorkle, mezzo soprano Brianna Hunter, and Victoria Okafor alongside Angela. She received the inaugural Lifetime Achievement Award from the Coalition for African Americans in the Performing Arts in 2022 for her impactful career and personal commitment to diversity in role models, performers, educators, and audiences in the arts. The Willson Center for Humanities and the Arts of the University of Georgia named Angela the 2023 Delta Visiting Chair for Global Understanding. The Chair is presented with the support of The Delta Air Lines Foundation, and Angela is the first musician to be honored with this distinction. She is the Artistic and Educational Ambassador of Indianapolis Opera. In 2023, the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music presented her with the Centennial Award for meaningful contributions to the advancement of music education, performance advocacy, and/or philanthropy.

While opera is the main catalyst for her career, Angela’s performance experience includes everything from star emcee to producer, recording artist, educator, and podcast host. She is featured in the 2022 Marian Anderson documentary, The Whole World in Her Hand, on PBS’s American Masters, and the 2021 Marian Anderson documentary, Voice of Freedom, on PBS’s American Experience. In 2020, she launched a podcast with Classical Music Indy and co-host Joshua Thompson: Melanated Moments in Classical Music, now in its seventh season. The first season landed in the top 10% of all podcasts for listeners and won Best Music Podcast of 2020 for the Black Music Podcasting Awards.

Additional milestones for Angela include singing on the Grammy Award®-winning recording of Ask Your Mama, composer Laura Karpman’s setting of the poem by Langston Hughes of the same title, and costarring in the American opera, Charlie Parker’s Yardbird by Daniel Schnyder in the 2015 world-premiere performance with Opera Philadelphia. She reprised the role of Addie Parker in historic performances at The Apollo in New York City in 2016, for Lyric Opera of Chicago and Madison Opera, and in London at The Hackney Empire in 2017, for The Atlanta Opera in 2019, for Seattle Opera in 2020, Dayton Opera in 2022, and New Orleans Opera in 2023.

Earlier career high points include her collaboration with American composer Richard Danielpour. Her early success as Aida was immediately followed by world premier performances of Danielpour’s opera Margaret Garner in the role of Cilla with Opera Philadelphia, Cincinnati Opera and Michigan Opera Theater. The result was a triumph that led Mr. Danielpour to set the poetry of visionary Maya Angelou for Angela’s voice in an orchestral song cycle, A Woman’s Life, co-commissioned by Pittsburgh Symphony and Philadelphia Orchestra, recorded in 2012 with the Nashville Symphony and released on the Naxos label in 2013.

A noted interpreter of African American spirituals, Angela released Mosaic, a collaborative recording featuring spirituals with guitarist Tyron Cooper and pianist Joseph Joubert, in October 2004 from Albany Records. In 2005, a live Christmas concert with the Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra and Indianapolis Opera Chorus was recorded by WFYI-PBS and broadcast throughout the United States. She guest starred on A Prairie Home Companion with Garrison Keillor radio show in 2009. In July 2010, Angela was presented in Shanghai at the World Expo 2010 as a guest of USA Pavilion and the United States Consulate. Angela was the only opera singer invited to perform for the USA Pavilion. She also opened the One Nation Working Together Rally in Washington, DC, by singing the National Anthem on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial and was selected by Marvin Hamlisch to premier his song composed for her and the Indianapolis Children’s Choir in honor of The Indianapolis Prize.

Throughout her career, Angela has joined forces with symphonic pops legends Marvin Hamlisch, Jack Everly, and Erich Kunzel while traveling the world for classical performances at Lincoln Center, Paris Opera, Vienna State Opera, Capetown (South Africa) Opera, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Edmonton Opera, Calgary Philharmonic, Shanghai World Expo, Moscow Performing Arts Center, and more. Her hometown of Indianapolis has welcomed her regularly for appearances with the Indianapolis Symphony for their Yuletide pops extravaganza, the Indianapolis Opera, the Indianapolis Symphonic Choir, as National Anthem soloist for the Indianapolis Colts, Indiana Pacers, and Indy Eleven, and to sing “God Bless America” twice for the running of the Indianapolis 500.

Ms. Brown’s previous solo appearances include: Metropolitan Opera; National Opera of Paris; Bilbao Opera, Spain; Teatro La Fenice; Hamburg Opera; Vienna Staatsoper; Capetown Opera; Deutsche Oper Berlin; Opera Philadelphia; Cincinnati Opera; Pittsburgh Opera; Opera Pacific; Florentine Opera; Indianapolis Opera; Michigan Opera Theater; Opera Birmingham; Dayton Opera; Florida Grand Opera; The Philadelphia Orchestra; Pittsburgh Symphony; Auckland Philharmonia; Leipzig Radio Orchestra; Latvian National Symphony; Moscow Symphony Orchestra; Festival of St. Denis, France; Indianapolis Symphony; Cincinnati Pops; Cincinnati Symphony; Brevard Festival Orchestra; Phoenix Symphony; Roanoke Symphony; Madison Symphony; El Paso Symphony; Knoxville Symphony; Chautauqua Institution; Carmel (Indiana) Symphony; residencies and recitals at Skidmore College and Acadiana Symphony Orchestra; Calgary Philharmonic; Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra; Buffalo Philharmonic; The Trumpet Awards; The Walker Theatre in Indianapolis; The Sun Valley Writers’ Conference; The Marian Anderson Award Ceremony; the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. Angela has performed in recital throughout the United States, Canada, Spain, New Zealand, and Africa.

A 1997 National Metropolitan Opera Council Auditions Winner, Ms. Brown received her Bachelor of Music degree in voice from Oakwood University in Huntsville, Alabama, where she studied with Ginger Beazley. She attended the Indiana University School of Music as a student in the studio of Virginia Zeani. Ms. Brown received the Indiana University African American Arts Institute’s inaugural Herman C. Hudson Alumni Award in 2006, given annually to recognize outstanding contributions made in the arts by former members of the Institute. Ms. Brown is featured in “Nineteen Stars of Indiana,” a book by Michael S. Maurer about nineteen, living Hoosier women with successful and inspirational life stories, released by Indiana University Press in December 2008. Angela is a proud recipient of the 2015 Indiana University Distinguished Alumni Service Award, the Jacobs School of Music Centennial Award, the Governor’s Arts Award from the Governor of Indiana, a Spirit of the Prairie Award from Conner Prairie in Indiana, and a member of the Indianapolis Public Schools Hall of Fame. The Carmichael Hotel in Carmel, Indiana, named the Angela Brown Dining Room in her honor and she is an honorary member of Sigma Alpha Iota national music fraternity. She is a voting member of The Recording Academy

Praised as “one of opera’s strongest voices at present – both as a singer and a shaper of its culture” (The Washington Post) and for her “sizeable voice that captured all of the vacillating emotions” (The New York Times), soprano Karen Slack is a recipient of the 2022 Sphinx Medal of Excellence and a 2025 MPower Artist Grant, Slack is a sought-after performer, curator, and artistic advisor known for her fiery charisma and groundbreaking approach to engagement. Her debut album, Beyond the Years: Unpublished Songs of Florence Price on Azica Records, won the 2025 GRAMMY® Award for Best Classical Solo Vocal Album.

Slack’s 2025-2026 season sees the continuation of nationwide touring for her critically-acclaimed African Queens, an evening-length vocal recital of new art songs celebrating the history and legacy of seven African queens, including a season-opening performance with Portland Opera and a season-concluding performance with Piedmont Opera. An orchestral version of African Queens is in development, with the world premiere to be presented by the Naples Philharmonic in Naples, Florida. Slack will also perform world premieres of Tamar-kali’s new work with the Miró Quartet for the Arizona Friends of Chamber Music and Philadelphia Chamber Music Society; Kathryn Bostic’s Drag, which celebrates the life of Gladys Bentley at the Dallas Symphony Orchestra; and Brittany J. Green’s Letters to America for Soprano and Orchestra, part of the American Composers Orchestra’s program Hello, America: Letters to Us, from Us at Carnegie Hall. Slack makes her debut with the Iris Collective, and also appears with the Orlando Philharmonic, Chamber Music Cincinnati, and Spivey Hall, and presents selections from her GRAMMY®-winning album Beyond the Years at Yale School of Music’s Oneppo Chamber Music Series and Amherst College.

In her 2024-2025 season, Slack performed the world premiere of African Queens at the Ravinia Festival, along with performances at co-commissioners Aspen Music Festival, Tanglewood Music Festival, 92NY, Washington Performing Arts, Denver Friends of Chamber Music, University of Toronto, and Newport Classical Festival. The program weaves historical narrative through new works by acclaimed composers Jasmine Barnes, Damien Geter, Jessie Montgomery, Shawn Okpebholo, Dave Ragland, Carlos Simon, Joel Thompson, and Will Liverman, along with carefully selected traditional repertoire, further illuminated through passages of spoken text and thematic artwork. She also performed recitals and outreach events as the Lyric Unlimited Artist-in-Residence at Lyric Opera of Chicago, served as Artist-in-Residence at Babson College, and appeared with the Fresno Philharmonic, Arizona Opera, Austin Symphony, and a tour of South Africa with the University of Michigan Symphony Orchestra.

In July 2024, Slack released an ambitious new recording project, Beyond the Years: Unpublished Songs of Florence Price, with pianist Michelle Cann in collaboration with ONEcomposer. The album comprises the unpublished songs of Florence Price, highlighting Price’s affinity with themes of faith, nature, love, and loss, and was accompanied by long-overdue published editions of Price’s music. Beyond the Years won the 2025 GRAMMY® Award for Best Classical Solo Vocal Album, making history as the first album comprised entirely of the works of a Black composer to the award. In 2025, Slack was featured on Shawn Okpebholo’s album Songs in Flight (Cedille Records), which explores the untold stories of runaway enslaved individuals over 12 songs with texts by poets Tsitsi Jaji, Crystal Simone Smith, and Tyehimba Jess.

In the 2023-2024 season, Slack made her solo debut with the New York Philharmonic in Beethoven’s Ah, Perfido! Op. 65 at David Geffen Hall and performed as a guest artist with Chamber Music Detroit, where she gave masterclasses and headlined two programs: as a soloist in Of Thee I Sing, curated by Slack as a call for racial justice and an appeal to the healing power of love, and alongside the Pacifica Quartet in works by Beethoven, Price, and James Lee III – whose featured work, A Double Standard, was commissioned for Slack and the Quartet by Carnegie Hall, Chamber Music Detroit, and Shriver Concert Series. She also performed selections from the Great American Songbook at the Dallas Symphony Orchestra under Music Director Fabio Luisi.

In the 2022-2023 season, Slack debuted with The Dallas Opera as Freia in Das Rheingold, Tosca at Edmonton Opera, and performed in the world premiere of Shawn Okpebholo’s Songs in Flight alongside singer and multi-instrumentalist Rhiannon Giddens at The Metropolitan Museum of Art and The Kimmel Center. She appeared in two separate world premieres by Hannibal Lokumbe, performing as a soloist with the Nashville Symphony (The Jonah People) and Oklahoma City Philharmonic (Trials, Tears, Transcendence: The Journey of Clara Luper). She premiered Jasmine Barnes’ Songs of Paul, a tribute to Paul Robeson, with Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and was featured soloist in the premiere of Damien Geter’s Justice Symphony with the Fresno Symphony and The Washington Chorus. Slack made her Houston Grand Opera debut in the world premiere of Joel Thompson and Andrea Davis Pinkney’s A Snowy Day and, in January 2022, was appointed Creative Partner with Brooklyn’s National Sawdust.

Slack debuted the role of Billie in the 2019 world premiere of Terence Blanchard’s Fire Shut Up in My Bones and made her film debut portraying the Opera Diva in Tyler Perry’s movie and soundtrack For Colored Girls. In addition, she has performed on the stages of the Metropolitan Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Washington National Opera, Scottish Opera, San Francisco Opera, Opera Theatre of St. Louis, Austin Opera, New Orleans Opera, Minnesota Opera, Vancouver Opera, Edmonton Opera, Sacramento Opera, Opera Philadelphia, Madison Opera, and Arizona Opera, among others.

When the pandemic limited live performances during the 2020-2021 season, Slack made virtual debuts with Houston Grand Opera, Madison Opera, and Minnesota Opera. She also starred in a new production of the opera Driving While Black, presented by UrbanArias, and launched a digital talk show, #kikikonversations, drawing acclaim from Opera News and The New York Times. She co-created and performed in #saytheirnames – Women of the Movement, a film recital and production in partnership with Philadelphia’s Lyric Fest, performed in recital for Opera Philadelphia. Appearing alongside actor/narrator Liev Schreiber, she was featured in Orpheus Chamber Orchestra’s Speaking Truth to Power program, hosted by livestream platform Idagio.

Throughout her illustrious career, Slack has performed Beethoven’s 9th Symphony, Mahler’s 2nd Symphony, Strauss’s Vier Letzte Lieder, and the Verdi Requiem with various orchestras throughout the United States. She was featured in her first performances of Chausson’s Poème de l’amour et la mer with the Omaha Symphony in collaboration with Opera Omaha. Abroad, she has appeared with the Melbourne Symphony, Sydney Symphony, and Bergen Philharmonic Orchestras, as well as with the St. Petersburg Philharmonic in celebration of the 80th birthday of conductor Yuri Temirkanov. Slack made her Carnegie Hall debut as Agnes Sorel in Tchaikovsky’s Maid of Orleans with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s. She performed as a soloist with the Philadelphia Orchestra in the world premiere of Hannibal Lokumbe’s Healing Tones with conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin and the Union Symphony Orchestra for Wagner’s Wesendonk Lieder.

Over recent seasons, Slack has amassed a body of work reflecting her dedication to premiering works by living composers, with particular focus on using her platform to elevate works by Black artists. Slack is an Artistic Advisor for Portland Opera, serves on the board of the American Composers Orchestra and holds a faculty position at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity in Alberta, Canada. She has been named Lyric Unlimited Artist-in-Residence at Lyric Opera of Chicago for the 2024-2025 season as well as Artist-in-Residence at the leading entrepreneurial institution, Babson College.

A native Philadelphian, Slack is a graduate of the prestigious Curtis Institute of Music, as well as the Adler Fellowship and the Merola Opera Program at the San Francisco Opera. She is the winner of numerous competitions and awards – most notably the Montserrat Caballé International Competition, Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, George London Foundation Award, Marian Anderson ICON Award, Licia Albanese-Puccini Foundation, Rosa Ponselle International Vocal Competition, Portland Opera Lieber Award, Liederkranz Foundation Award, and the Jose Iturbi International Competition for Voice. For more information, please visit www.sopranokarenslack.com.

Tesia Kwarteng is a versatile and multi-faceted Ghanaian-American artist who is equally at home on the operatic stage, on screen, and in the studio.

Upcoming and recent highlights for Ms. Kwarteng include Ruth in The Pirates of Penzance with Tulsa Opera, a concert appearance with Symphony of the Americas, a role and house debut as Maddalena in Verdi’s Rigoletto with Cincinnati Opera, creating the role of Ida Mae in the world premiere of Damien Geter’s American Apollo with Des Moines Metro Opera, Jenny in The Threepenny Opera with Opera Columbus, The Cartography Project with Washington National Opera, and creating the role of Annette Byrd in the world premiere of Damien Geter’s Loving v. Virginia with Virginia Opera.

Engagements of note for Ms. Kwarteng during the 2023-2024 season included a house and role debut in the title role of Carmen with Opera Columbus, Marcellina in Le nozze di Figaro for another house debut with Portland Opera, and a house debut with Virginia Opera in Damien Geter’s Sanctuary Road. Highlights of the 2022-2023 season included a Broadway debut as Lady Catherine in Lincoln Center Theater‘s new production of Lerner & Lowe’s Camelot, featuring a book by Academy and Emmy Award-winning writer Aaron Sorkin and directed by Bartlett Sher.

During the 2021-2022 season, Ms. Kwarteng made her principal debut at The Metropolitan Opera as a Pit Singer in Brett Dean’s Hamlet and also made her Off-Broadway debut at Lincoln Center Theater in Ricky Ian Gordon and Lynn Nottage’s new opera Intimate Apparel, where she was seen as Mayme and in the ensemble. Tesia also covered the role of Ruby/Sinner Woman in Terence Blanchard’s Fire Shut Up In My Bones at The Metropolitan Opera and sang the role of Woman 5 in Letters That You Will Not Get: Women’s Voices from The Great War with American Opera Projects and the role of Maurya in What Lies Beneath with On Site Opera. She also participated in a workshop for Written in Stone at Washington National Opera, where she sang the role of Laurel in Carlos Simon’s It All Falls Down and Victoria Wilson in Kamala Sankaram’s Rise.

In previous seasons, Ms. Kwarteng made her Austin Opera debut featured in recital as a part of the Live from Indy Terrace broadcast series and was also a featured soloist in the ensemble of the GRAMMY Award-winning production of Porgy and Bess at The Metropolitan Opera. As a Resident Artist at Tri-Cities Opera, she was seen as Suzuki in Madama Butterfly, La Zia Principessa in Suor Angelica, Madeline Mitchell in Three Decembers and Buttercup in H.M.S. Pinafore. She has also participated in training programs at the Opera Theater of Saint Louis, The Glimmerglass Festival, Virginia Opera and Chautauqua Opera.

A champion of contemporary compositions, Tesia has performed in several world premieres and workshops of new works, including the role of Bertha in Terence Blanchard’s Fire Shut Up In My Bones with Opera Theater of Saint Louis, Lee in Marie Begins, a soloist in Beyond Liberty with Thomas Hampson at The Glimmerglass Festival, Frances in a workshop performance of the new chamber opera The Flood at Opera Columbus, Melba Patillo in excerpts from Little Rock 9 by Kennedy Center Honoree Tania Leon at the MacDowell Colony National Benefit, the ensemble of Dear Erich at New York City Opera and Harriet Tubman: When I Crossed that Line to Freedom with American Opera Projects, Abigail in Sleepy Hollow: The Musical at the New York New Works Theater Festival, and the premiere of Jeremy Gill’s art song Rose (based on Ann Patchett’s book The Patron Saint of Liars, which was written for Ms. Kwarteng and performed at Chautauqua Opera).

In concert, Tesia has been seen at 54 Below, as Consuelo in West Side Story at The Kennedy Center with the National Symphony Orchestra, as a soloist in Laura Karpman’s GRAMMY Award-winning Ask Your Mama: 12 Moods for Jazz at the Apollo Theater with Jessye Norman, and as Alto Soloist in Mozart’s Requiem at First Presbyterian Church in Stamford, Connecticut. Her regional theater credits include Little Shop of Horrors (Ronette) with Barn Arts Center for the Arts, Hairspray (Dynamite) and The Sound of Music (Nun) at Casa Mañana Theater and Ragtime (Sarah’s friend) at Manhattan School of Music. She also toured the Abyssinian Mass with Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at the Lincoln Center Orchestra as a member of Chorale le Chateau, and also toured with the American Spiritual Ensemble in 2017.

Ms. Kwarteng led and sang with the vocal ensemble Vox Noire on the recording of the original film score for The Woman King by Terence Blanchard, directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood and starring Viola Davis. Tesia’s first libretto commission (titled A Sable Jubilee) also premiered in 2022 at the Aspen Music Festival, with music composed by Jasmine Barnes and sung by Will Liverman.

Tesia was a finalist in the 2020 George London Foundation Competition, was selected as a 2019 Top 30 under 30 Pioneer by the Future of Ghana publication, has received a career grant from the Bagby Foundation for Musical Arts, was an Encouragement Award winner at the Houston district Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, was a 2016 recipient of an encouragement grant from the Career Bridges Foundation, was a fellow at the CoOPERAtive Program in 2015, and received the 2013 Legacy Award in the National Opera Association competition.

Everett McCorvey, a native of Montgomery, Alabama, and a graduate of the University of Alabama where he received his degrees including a Doctorate in Musical Arts. He has given performances at the Metropolitan Opera, Kennedy Center, Radio City Music Hall, Teatro Comunale, Florence, Italy, Queen Elizabeth Hall, London, England, and in over 23 countries.

He is the Founder and Artistic Director of the American Spiritual Ensemble, a professional Ensemble dedicated to the performance and preservation of the American Negro Spiritual and he is the Conductor and Artistic Director of the National Chorale and Orchestra of New York City, a professional organization dedicated to performing the titans of the classical choral repertoire. He was recently appointed as the inaugural Principal Guest Conductor at Opera Columbus. Opera Columbus (Ohio, USA).

In his home state of Kentucky, he is the Chairman of the Kentucky Arts Council and nationally, he is an advisory panelist for the National Endowment for the Arts. Dr. McCorvey also serves on the Board of Trustees of the Sullivan Foundation of New York, an organization dedicated to identifying gifted young opera singers in the early stages of their professional careers and helping them develop through a unique program combining audition awards with continuing support for learning new roles.

He has served on the faculties of the New York State Summer School of the Arts, American Institute of Musical Studies, Graz, Austria, and Bay View Music Festival as co-opera conductor and co-director of the American Negro Spirituals Intensive Program. He holds position of the OperaLex Endowed Chair of Opera Studies and Professor of Voice at the University of Kentucky in Lexington, Kentucky

Recent conducting stints include SANCTUARY ROAD by Paul Moravec and Pulitzer Prize Librettist Mark Campbell with Virginia Opera this past February of 2024; Handel’s MESSIAH at the newly renovated David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center in December of 2023; CARMEN by Bizet in October of 2023 with Opera Columbus; SUOR ANGELICA and GIANNI SCHICCHI with the Bay View Opera Festival in the summer of 2023; MARIA DE BUENOS AIRES with Kentucky Opera in November of 2022; The World Premiere of THE SECRET RIVER by Stella Sung and Mark Campbell with Opera Orlando in December of 2021 as well as conducting the Dvořák Symphony #9 in Prague’s Smetana Hall with the North Czech Philharmonic and the Grand Finale Opera Gala at the Mythos Opera Festival 2018.

Upcoming concerts include conducting THE THREE PENNY OPERA by Kurt Weil with Opera Columbus, THIS LITTLE LIGHT OF MINE by Chandler Carter with the libretto by Diana Solomon Glover with Kentucky Opera, and TREEMONISHA by Scott Joplin with Opera Orlando. McCorvey served as the Music Director and Conductor of the World Premier of BOUNCE, The Basketball Opera, conceived and directed by Gretha Holby with the lead composer Glen Roven and author and librettist Charles R. Smith, Jr. Additional music for BOUNCE was written by Tomas Doncker and West Side Story Film Star Ansel Elgort.

Dr. Mccorvey is married to soprano, Alicia Helm and they have three children.

Tenor John Wesley Wright, D. M. A., is known for his soulful interpretations of music from Bach to Broadway. Holding degrees from Maryville College in Tennessee and the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, Wright has performed as a soloist and in professional ensembles throughout the United States, Europe, and Japan, including as a twenty-year member of the internationally acclaimed American Spiritual Ensemble. In addition, he has garnered top prizes from the National Federation of Music Clubs, the Metropolitan Opera National Council, and was gold medalist of the 2000 American Traditions Vocal Competition in Savannah, Georgia. In recent years, Wright received a citation from the State Senate of Maryland lauding his scholarship, teaching, and performance of African American spirituals and the University of Maryland Board of Regents’ Award for Excellence in Creative Activity. Dr. Wright is Professor of Music and coordinator of the voice and opera workshop programs at Salisbury University in Salisbury, Maryland. A native of Rome, Georgia, he is an artist advocate, producer, stage director, and leader of workshops on voice production, song interpretation, acting for singers, and African American song traditions. Dr. Wright maintains a thirty+ year passion for vocal coaching men’s and women’s choirs in various Ohio correctional facilities.

Kenneth Overton’s symphonious baritone voice has sent him around the globe, making him one of the most sought-after opera and concert singers of his generation. Kenneth is a 2020 GRAMMY AWARD WINNER for Best Choral Performance in the title role of Richard Danielpour’s The Passion of Yeshua with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorus, conducted by JoAnn Falletta. As a two time Top Ten Billboard Charting Recording Artist, Kenneth’s latest release “The LIVING Spiritual” is available now on Navona Records.

On the operatic stage singing the roles of Porgy in Porgy and Bess, Amonasro in Aida, Sharpless in Madama Butterfly, Marcello/Schaunard in La Boheme, and a host of new and contemporary works, Kenneth has appeared with The Metropolitan Opera, San Francisco Opera, Royal Danish Opera, L’Opera de Montreal, Palacio Bellas Artes (Mexico City), Deutsche Oper Berlin, Capetown Opera, Opera Carolina, North Carolina Opera, Opera Montana, Connecticut Opera, Skylark Opera, Opera Memphis, Nashville Opera, Chattanooga Symphony and Opera, Sacramento Opera, Fresno Grand Opera, Pensacola Opera, Mobile Opera, Opera Tampa, Opera Idaho, Houston Ebony Opera, Opera Delaware, New Orleans Opera, Opera Ebony, New York City Opera, Bregenzer Festspiele (Austria), Fort Worth Opera, and the Welsh National Opera among others. This season, Kenneth makes his Main Stage Directorial Debut with Opera Columbus in Joseph Bologne’s opera “The Anonymous Lover”.

On the concert stage Mr. Overton has been a soloist with The New York Philharmonic, The Washington Chorus, Oregon Bach Festival, Chamber Music North West, NDR Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Lithuanian Philharmonic, Sopot Festival Poland, Klagenfurt Philharmonic, New Jersey Symphony, Lancaster Symphony Orchestra, Harrisburg Symphony, Phoenix Symphony, New Haven Symphony, Indianapolis Symphonic Choir, The National Chorale, Bard Music Festival, Austin Symphony, Duluth Superior Symphony, New York Chorale Society, Oregon Symphony, Annapolis Symphony, Harlem Chamber Players, American Symphony Orchestra, Spartanburg Philharmonic, Richmond Symphony, and The Lyric Opera of Chicago. For more information www.KennethOverton.com