Bass-baritone Kevin Short’s current and future engagements include Porgy in Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess with the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra in Hamburg, Golaud in Debussy’s Pelleas and Melisande at the Enescu Festival in Bucharest, Zuniga in Bizet’s Carmen with Washington National Opera, Rivers/Ralston in a recording and film of Gordon Getty’s Goodbye, Mr. Chips, the title role in Mozart’s Don Giovanni at the Joburg Theatre in Johannesburg, and Angelotti in Puccini’s Tosca and covering Emilie Griffith in Terence Blanchard’s Champion at the Metropolitan Opera. Recent highlights include Porgy, Doctor Grenvil in Verdi’s La traviata, and Pfleger in Strauss’s Elektra at the Metropolitan Opera; the Speaker in Mozart’s The Magic Flute at Washington National Opera; Porgy and Don Fernando in Beethoven’s Fidelio at Seattle Opera; Jack Rance in Puccini’s The Girl of the Golden West at New York City Opera; Bartolo in Rossini’s The Barber of Seville at Florida Grand Opera; and the title role in Wagner’s The Flying Dutchman and Nick Shadow at the Staatstheater Bern. Additionally he has sung Porgy in Naples, Florence, Linz, Luxembourg, Las Palmas, Milan, and St. Petersburg, Russia.
Highlights of Mr. Short’s concert appearances include the Opera Orchestra of New York, the Cleveland Orchestra, the San Francisco Symphony, the Boston Symphony, the St. Louis Symphony, the Detroit Symphony, the Baltimore Symphony, and the New Japan Philharmonic. He made his Philadelphia Orchestra debut in 1996. He recorded a solo aria album with Lawrence Foster and the Orchestre de l’Opéra de Marseille on Pentatone, which was released in 2018.
Mr. Short received his training at Morgan State University, the Curtis Institute of Music, and the Juilliard School of Music Opera Center. He was a winner of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, the International Competition for Verdian Voices, the Rosa Ponselle International Vocal Competition, the Bruce Yarnell Competition for Basses and Baritones, the Opera America Competition, and the Leiderkranz Competition, and he has received awards and grants from the Sullivan Foundation, the Shoshana Foundation, and Opera Index.