Guest ArtistsDavóne Tines, bass-baritone

In a just world, one in which fame was proportionate to talent, Davóne Tines would be as big a name as Kanye West” proclaimed KQED following concerts given with the San Francisco Symphony. Breakout performances were given on both sides of the Atlantic in 2015-16 when Davóne Tines made a Dutch National Opera debut in the premiere of Kaija Saariaho’s Only the Sound Remains, directed by Peter Sellars. The bass-baritone was exalted by The Los Angeles Times as “the find of the season” for performances of works by Caroline Shaw and Kaija Saariaho with the Calder Quartet and with members of ICE at the Ojai Music Festival.

Performances in 2018-19 include the world premiere of The Black Clown by composer Michael Schachter with a libretto adapted by Davóne Tines and Michael Schachter from the Langston Hughes poem. Presented by the American Repertory Theater, The Black Clown – in a production directed by Zack Winokur – is a music theater experience that animates a black man’s resilience against America’s legacy of oppression by fusing vaudeville, opera, jazz and spirituals to bring Hughes’ verse to life onstage. Kaija Saariaho’s Only the Sound Remains returns to Davóne Tines’ calendar in performances at the Teatro Real and Lincoln Center, and John Adams’ El Niño serves as his debut with Vladimir Jurowski conducting the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin.

The artist reprises his acclaimed portrayal of Ned Peters in the European premiere of John Adams and Peter Sellars’ Girls of the Golden West at Dutch National Opera, and he assays the title role of Henze’s El Cimarrón in a new production by Zack Winokur at the Metropolitan Museum of Arts in collaboration with the American Modern Opera Company. Davóne Tines makes a debut at Opera Theatre of Saint Louis in the world premiere of Fire Shut Up in My Bones by the creative team of Terence Blanchard and Kasi Lemmons. Symphonic appearances this season include concerts with Esa-Pekka Salonen and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony and Aram Demirjian leading the Kansas City Symphony.