Keith Jameson
FOUNDER AND DIRECTOR
Keith Jameson, tenor, a native of Greenwood, made his Metropolitan Opera debut in 2007 in Prokofiev’s War and Peace, and returned for Remendado in Carmen, broadcast “Live from the Met in HD” to movie theaters worldwide, and Gherardo in Gianni Schicchi during the 2009-2010 season. He had a major success in 2009 performing Vašek in The Bartered Bride with Opera Boston. Keith has sung Triquet in Eugene Onegin, Beppe in I Pagliacci and Basilio in Le nozze di Figaro all with Lyric Opera of Chicago. He also has performed with the Santa Fe Opera as Bardolfo in Falstaff, the Novice in Billy Budd, Pong in Turandot, and Bob Boles in Peter Grimes among many others. He has sung with Opera Royal de Wallonie in Liege, Belgium in 2007 as Peter Quint in Britten’s The Turn of the Screw, and with English National Opera in London as Nanki-Poo in Jonathan Miller’s production of The Mikado, and with Los Angeles Opera as Valletto in Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea and Goro in Madama Butterfly. He sang the title role of Candide at New York City Opera , where he performed regularly for six consecutive years. His roles there have included Oronte in Handel’s Alcina, Nanki-Poo in The Mikado, Tobias Ragg in Sweeney Todd (production by Hal Prince), Ugone in Handel’s Flavio, and Goro in Madama Butterfly in Tokyo and Nagoya with New York City Opera’s 2005 Japan Tour. He recently debuted with Dallas Opera in Le nozze di Figaro. He has performed Tamino in The Magic Flute with Utah Festival Opera, Pedrillo in The Abduction from the Seraglio with Opera Memphis, Monostatos in The Magic Flute, and Little Bat in Susannahand Goro with Indianapolis Opera, Beppe in I Pagliacci at the Bardavon Opera House in Poughkeepsie, NY, Almaviva in The Barber of Seville with South Carolina’s Newberry Opera, and Acis in Acis and Galatea with New York’s Fiammetta Ensemble. He performed Monostatos with Madison Opera and sang the Lecturer in Argento’s A Water Bird Talk with Musica Nova in Rochester, NY. He performed the roles of Bretschneider and Army Chaplain in Kurka’s The Good Soldier Schweik at Glimmerglass Opera.
As a gifted interpreter of Gilbert & Sullivan, he has performed Nanki-Poo, Frederic in The Pirates of Penzance, Hilarion in Princess Ida, and Fairfax in The Yeomen of the Guard, all with the New York Gilbert and Sullivan Players, in New York’s City Center, Wolf Trap’s Filene Center, and Lake Placid’s Performing Arts Center. He also sang Ralph in H.M.S. Pinafore with Chattanooga Opera. He made his Carnegie Hall debut in 2004 as tenor soloist in Beethoven’s Mass in C and Schubert’s Mass in G with Mid-America Productions, and returned in 2005 to sing the tenor soloist in Mozart’s Coronation Mass. He was the tenor soloist in Handel’s Messiah with Boston Baroque (2004, 2005, and 2008), the Phoenix Symphony (1999 and 2000), and Winston-salem Symphony (2008), and in Bach’s B-minor Mass with the Berkshire Bach Society at Ozawa Hall at Tanglewood in 2004, and in Mozart’s Requiem and Coronation Mass with the Greenville Chorale, SC in 2006. He has also sung with the Carmel Bach Festival as a Virginia Best Adams Voice Fellow, the Brevard Music Center, Opera Theatre of Rochester, NY, Currents in Richmond, VA, and the Youngstown Symphony Orchestra.
He was a 1999 award recipient of the prestigious Sullivan Foundation. He received his Bachelor of Music in Vocal Performance from Furman University, and his Master of Music in Conducting and his Doctorate of Musical Arts in Vocal Performance and Literature both from the Eastman School of Music.
His upcoming engagements include a return to Los Angeles Opera for Pietro in Die Gezeichneten, and to The Santa Fe Opera for Goro and Clarin in the world premiere of Spratlin’s Life is a Dream. He also returns to Lyric Opera of Chicago as Flute/Tisbe in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and makes his role debut as the Simpleton in Boris Godunov with The Dallas Opera in 2011. He also will make his New York Philharmonic debut as Mosquito/The Schoolmaster in The Cunning Little Vixen in June 2011. Please visit his website at www.keithjameson.org