THE FLORIDA ORCHESTRA | 2019-2020 61
British-American
tenor Joshua Blue
began the 2019/2020
season by performing
Beethoven’s
Symphony No. 9 with
the National Symphony
Orchestra for
the Opening Festival
of The REACH
in Washington, D.C.
Opera engagements
this season feature
role debuts as Tamino in the Maurice Sendak production
of Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte with Washington
National Opera, Alfred in Johann Strauss’s Die
Fledermaus at the Opera Theatre of Saint Louis,
and Don Ottavio in Mozart’s Don Giovanni with the
Berkshire Opera Festival. Additional performances
at Washington National Opera include Philistine
Messenger in Saint-Saëns’s Samson and Delilah
conducted by John Fiore and Man 1 in the D.C
premiere of Jeanine Tesori’s Blue directed by the
work’s librettist Tazewell Thompson.
Concerts this season will be marked with a return to
Carnegie Hall joining Musica Sacra for Handel’s Messiah
and the premiere of Tain’t Nobody’s Business If
I Do: Songs from Gay Harlem with the New York Festival
of Song and pianist Steven Blier. Blue’s career
has brought him to The Kennedy Center, Seiji Ozawa
Matsumoto Festival, Library of Congress, and Music
Academy of the West. He has also performed at the
Santa Fe Opera, Wolf Trap Opera, Opera Theatre
of Saint Louis, and Austin Opera, and worked with
conductors Gianandrea Noseda, James Gaffigan,
Fabio Luisi, Renato Palumbo, and Geoffrey McDonald,
as well as stage director Francesca Zambello.
Blue attended Oberlin Conservatory of Music and
The Juilliard School. He is currently in his second
year as a Domingo-Cafritz Young Artist with the
Washington National Opera.
Kevin Deas has
gained international
renown as one of
America’s leading
bass-baritones. He
is perhaps most acclaimed
for his signature
portrayal of
the title role in Porgy
and Bess, having performed
it with the
New York Philharmonic,
Philadelphia
Orchestra, National
Symphony, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Pacific
Symphony, as well as the most illustrious orchestras
on the North American continent, and at the
Ravinia, Vail and Saratoga festivals. Last season,
highlights included performances of Beethoven’s
Symphony No. 9 with Orquesta Sinfonica de Mineria
and the Buffalo Philharmonic, Elgar’s Dream of
Gerontius with the National Symphony Orchestra
of Mexico, Porgy and Bess with The Florida Orchestra,
performances of Handel’s Messiah with
the National Cathedral and Virginia Symphony,
Bach’s St. John Passion with the Louisiana Philharmonic,
Joe Horowitz’s “Dvorak in America”
project with the Las Vegas Philharmonic, and
Verdi’s Requiem with the National Philharmonic.
A strong proponent of contemporary music, he
was heard at Italy’s Spoleto Festival in a new production
of Menotti’s Amahl and the Night Visitors in
honor of the composer’s eighty-fifth birthday. His
twenty-year collaboration with the late jazz legend
Dave Brubeck has taken him to Salzburg, Vienna
and Moscow in performances of To Hope!
Deas recorded Wagner’s Die Meistersinger with the
Chicago Symphony under the late Sir Georg Solti,
and Varèse’s Ecuatorial with the ASKO Ensemble
under the baton of Riccardo Chailly. Other releases
include Bach’s Mass in B Minor and Handel’s Acis
and Galatea; Dave Brubeck’s To Hope! with the
Cathedral Choral Society; and Haydn’s Die Schöpfung
with the Virginia Symphony and Boston Baroque.
Tenor
KEVIN DEAS
Bass-Baritone