Festival Soirée

Broadway- A Chorus Line, Little Me, Dancin’, Sweet Charity (Tony Award), Damn Yankees, Addams Family, Chicago (Tony, Drama Desk, Astaire, etc. Awards), Fosse. Off-Broadway- A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Here Lies Jenny, etc. Regional- West Side Story, The Taming of the Shrew, etc. London’s West End- Kiss of the Spiderwoman. TV- Cheers (2 Emmy Awards), Frasier, etc. Film- Greencard, Liberty Heights, Summer Sam, etc. Albums- Porcelain, Stories in NYC (live at 54Below). Various honors and awards- CTFD Rolex Dance Award, Dance Magazine Award, Honorary Doctorate from Manhattan School of Music, Honorary Zeigfeld Girl, Honorary member of Local 1 (Stagehands’ Union).

Morris Robinson (Bass) is considered one the most interesting and sought after basses performing today.
Mr. Robinson regularly appears at the Metropolitan Opera, where he is a graduate of the Lindemann Young Artist Program. He his debut there in a production of Fidelio and has since appeared as Sarastro in Die Zauberflöte(both in the original production and in the children’s English version), Ferrando in Il Trovatore, the King in Aida, and in roles in Nabucco, Tannhäuser, and the new productions of Les Troyens and Salome. He has also appeared at the San Francisco Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Dallas Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Boston Lyric Opera, Pittsburgh Opera, Opera Philadelphia, Seattle Opera, Los Angeles Opera, Cincinnati Opera, Boston Lyric Opera, Opera Theater of St. Louis, Teatro alla Scala, Opera Australia, and the Aix-en-Provence Festival. His many roles include the title role in Porgy and Bess, Sarastro in Die Zauberflöte, Osmin in Die Entführung aus dem Serail, Ramfis in Aida, Zaccaria in Nabucco, Sparafucile in Rigoletto, Commendatore in Don Giovanni, Grand Inquisitor in Don Carlos, Timur in Turandot, the Bonze in Madama Butterfly, Padre Guardiano in La Forza del Destino, Ferrando in Il Trovatore, and Fasolt in Das Rheingold.
Also a prolific concert singer, Mr. Robinson’s many concert engagements have included appearances with the New York Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra (where he was the 2015-2016 Artist in Residence), San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, Baltimore Symphony, National Symphony Orchestra, Houston Symphony, L’Orchestre Symphonique de Montreal, Met Chamber Orchestra, Nashville Symphony Orchestra, São Paulo Symphony Orchestra, New England String Ensemble, and at the BBC Proms and the Ravinia, Mostly Mozart, Tanglewood, Cincinnati May, Verbier, and Aspen Music Festivals. He also appeared in Carnegie Hall as part of Jessye Norman’s HONOR! Festival. In recital he has been presented by Spivey Hall in Atlanta, the Savannah Music Festival, the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, DC, the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.
Mr. Robinson’s first album, Going Home, was released on the Decca label. He also appears as Joe in the newly released DVD of the San Francisco Opera production of Show Boat, and in the DVDs of the Metropolitan Opera’s production of Salome and the Aix-en-Provence Festival’s production of Mozart’s Zaide.
This season, Mr. Robinson makes his debut at the Volksoper Wien in concert performances of Porgy and Bess, returns to the Los Angeles Opera for Don Carlo and Satyagraha, the Metropolitan Opera in The Magic Flute, and the Cincinnati Opera in Porgy and Bess, and appears in concert with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Atlanta Symphony and the Madison Symphony Orchestra.
An Atlanta native, Mr. Robinson is a graduate of The Citadel and received his musical training from the Boston University Opera Institute. He was recently named Artistic Advisor to the Cincinnati Opera

Recognized worldwide as one of today’s most exciting vocal stars, Denyce Graves continues to garner unparalleled acclaim in performance around the world. USA Today identifies her as “an operatic superstar of the 21st century,” and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution exclaims, “If the human voice has the power to move you, you will be touched by Denyce Graves.” Highlights of the 2018-2019 season include Ms. Graves’ highly anticipated return to the Metropolitan Opera in Nico Muhly’s new opera Marnie, revisiting her signature role of Carmen performing the opera in concert with the Richmond Symphony, and singing a gala recital presented by Annapolis Opera Company in the spring. In the 2017-2018 season, she was seen in recital at Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires before going on to perform the role of The Old Lady in Candide at both Washington National Opera and Palm Beach Opera. She appeared at the Gala de Danza in Los Cobos, Mexico. In addition, Ms. Graves sang recitals at Bob Jones University (Greenville, SC) and the Academy Art Museum (Easton, MD).
Denyce Graves has become most beloved to operatic audiences for her portrayals of the title roles in Carmen and Samson et Dalila. These signature roles have brought her to the Metropolitan Opera, Vienna Staatsoper, Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, San Francisco Opera, Opéra National de Paris, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Washington National Opera, Bayerische Staatsoper, Arena di Verona, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Opernhaus Zürich, Teatro Real in Madrid, Houston Grand Opera, The Dallas Opera, Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, Los Angeles Opera, and the Festival Maggio Musicale in Florence. Ms. Graves has worked with the finest symphony orchestras and conductors in a wide range of repertoire. She has performed with Riccardo Chailly, Myung-Whun Chung, Charles Dutoit, Christoph Eschenbach, James Levine, Zubin Mehta, Lorin Maazel, Kurt Masur, Riccardo Muti, and Mstislav Rostropovich. For nearly two decades, Ms. Graves has been a prolific recording artist.
Ms. Graves is a native of Washington, D.C., where she attended the Duke Ellington School for the Performing Arts. She continued her education at Oberlin College Conservatory of Music and the New England Conservatory. She is the recipient of many awards, including the Grand Prix du Concours International de Chant de Paris, the Eleanor Steber Music Award in the Opera Columbus Vocal Competition, and a Jacobson Study Grant from the Richard Tucker Music Foundation. In 1991, she received the Grand Prix Lyrique, awarded once every three years by the Association des amis de l’opéra de Monte-Carlo, and the Marian Anderson Award, presented to her by Miss Anderson. In addition she has received honorary doctorates from Oberlin College, the College of Saint Mary, Centre College, and the New England Conservatory. Ms. Graves’ dedication to the singers of the next generation continues to be an important part of her career and recently she joined the voice faculty of the Peabody Conservatory of Music in Baltimore.