Roderick George

Style: Opera; Classical; Musical Theatre

Title: Professor of Music/Head of Voice

Bio:

Tenor Roderick George made his New York Lincoln Center debut in Handel’s Messiah with the National Chorale. Regularly engaged as a soloist in major concert and oratorio works, he has sung over eighty performances of Messiah, including recent appearances with the Alabama Symphony Orchestra, North Carolina Baroque Orchestra, Shoals Symphony, and El Paso Choral Society. Other recent engagements have included Mozart Requiem with Northwest Florida Symphony, Carmina Burana with Huntsville Symphony, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with the Alabama Symphony, and Hailstork’s I Will Lift Up Mine Eyes with Nashville Symphony. His international highlights have included performances throughout Russia with the Orpheus Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Krasnoyarsk Philharmonic Orchestra, and he has made appearances at numerous prestigious international festivals and venues such as the Cayman Arts Festival (George Town, Grand Cayman), Choral Canada (Toronto), Festival Internacional de Musica Sacra (Quito, Ecuador), La Folle Journée (Nantes, France), Festival Internacional de la Porta Ferrada (Spain), Notre-Dame Cathedral (Paris, France), National Opera House (Wexford, Ireland), and the Spaso House of the U.S. Embassy in Moscow. Likewise, at home on the operatic stage, Dr. George has performed a diversity of leading tenor roles in operas such as L’elisir d’amore, Don Giovanni, Die Zauberflöte, Madama Butterfly, La Bohème, La Traviata, Romeo et Juliette, Lakmé, Porgy and Bess, and The Merry Widow. A champion of American art song, Dr. George is a specialist in the study and performance of song settings composed to texts by Paul Laurence Dunbar and Langston Hughes. He sang the world premiere performance of Adolphus Hailstork’s "Four Romantic Love Songs" on poems of Dunbar at the African American Art Song Alliance Conference at the University of California (Irvine). He is also a noted interpreter of the art songs of Harry T. Burleigh. Dr. George’s professional choral endeavors have included multiple tours throughout the United States and abroad with the American Spiritual Ensemble, and he is a member of the Jason Max Ferdinand Singers, who premiered in the 2021 VOCES8 Foundation Live from London Festival Series. He is featured on recordings with the American Spiritual Ensemble, the Ferdinand Singers, and he is the tenor soloist in Nathaniel Dett’s "The Chariot Jubilee" on the 2020 self-titled project of the Oakwood University Aeolians.

Dr. George is a Professor of Music and Area Head of Voice at the University of Montevallo, where he was named a recipient of the College of Fine Arts Distinguished Teacher Award. He holds graduate degrees in voice, opera and musical theater performance from the Florida State University and Southern Illinois University (Carbondale), with advanced studies in Austria at the American Institute of Musical Studies. An active member of the National Association of Teachers of Singing and a NATS Intern Program alum, Dr. George previously taught on faculty at Stillman College (Tuscaloosa, Alabama), and more recently served on the artist faculty of the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity (Canada). Additional information is available at www.roderickgeorge.com.

Voice Type: Tenor

Music Styles Taught: Opera; Classical; Musical Theatre

Availability: I am available as a performer; I am currently accepting private students; I am available as a clinician or presenter; I accept students through a college or university program

Contact Information