Davóne Tines to be Honored as Vocalist of the Year at the 61st Annual MUSICAL AMERICA AWARDS

Bass-baritone Davóne Tines, who in October was announced as Musical America's 2022 Vocalist of the Year, will be honored for this achievement at the 61st annual Musical America Awards, to be held virtually via Facebook Live on Sunday, December 5 at 4:00 p.m. ET. The livestream will be hosted on Musical America's Facebook page and will subsequently remain available for streaming on demand.

As part of the virtual ceremony, Mr. Tines will be webcast in conversation with Yuval Sharon, Artistic Director of Michigan Opera Theatre, where Mr. Tines is in residence this season. Their discussion explores Mr. Tines's background and artistry, while also looking ahead to his further residency activities in Detroit.

This event arrives on the heels of major performances this fall and heightened recognition for Mr. Tines's artistry in recent months, including an in-depth profile by Alex Ross in The New Yorker ("Davóne Tines is Changing What It Means to Be a Classical Singer"). In the article, the writer describes Mr. Tines as "an intense, magnetic presence" on stage and relates his experience hearing Mr. Tines perform for the first time: "within thirty seconds, I knew I was in the presence of a major artist."

Mr. Tines's fall highlights have included performances of his Concerto No. 1: SERMON with the BBC Symphony Orchestra (Dalia Stasevska, cond.) and The Philadelphia Orchestra (Yannick Nézet-Séguin, cond.); his Recital No. 1: MASS with Adam Nielsen at London's Barbican Centre; and performances with the Dover Quartet presented by San Francisco Performances, Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, and St. Paul's Schubert Club. His performances in Philadelphia prompted The Philadelphia Inquirer to hail him as "one of the most important new artistic influences on the city."

For Musical America, Mr. Tines was profiled by Oussama Zahr, whose work appears in The New Yorker, among other publications. Click here to read.

Additional artists to be honored at the 61st annual Musical America Awards are Artist of the Year Mitsuko Uchida, Composer of the Year Missy Mazzoli, and Conductor of the Year Teddy Abrams. The proceedings will feature special appearances by leading artists and previous award winners, including (in addition to Yuval Sharon) composer John Adams, pianist Jonathan Biss, violinist Jennifer Koh, pipa virtuoso Wu Man, the Danish String Quartet, countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo, cellist David Finckel, pianist Wu Han, and composer Mason Bates.

Heralded as "[one] of the most powerful voices of our time" by the Los Angeles Times, the "immensely gifted American bass-baritone Davóne Tines has won acclaim, and advanced the field of classical music" (The New York Times) as a path-breaking artist whose work not only encompasses a diverse repertoire but also explores the social issues of today. As a Black, gay, classically trained performer at the intersection of many histories, cultures, and aesthetics, he is engaged in work that blends opera, art song, contemporary classical music, spirituals, gospel, and songs of protest, as a means to tell a deeply personal story of perseverance that connects to all of humanity.

Mr. Tines is Artist-in-Residence at Michigan Opera Theatre-an appointment that culminates in his performance in the title role of Anthony Davis' X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X in the spring of 2022-and Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra & Chorale's first-ever Creative Partner. His ongoing projects include Recital No. 1: MASS, a program exploring the Mass woven through Western European, African American, and 21st-century traditions, and Concerto No. 1: SERMON, a program he conceived for voice and orchestra that weaves arias by John Adams, Anthony Davis, Igee Dieudonné, and Mr. Tines himself, with texts by James Baldwin, Langston Hughes, and Maya Angelou. In addition to this fall's presentations of these programs, upcoming performances of MASS take place in Houston, presented by DACAMERA, and Washington, DC, presented by Washington Performing Arts. He is also collaborating with violinist Jennifer Koh on the project Everything Rises, an evening-length musico-theatrical experience borne of their own experiences as artists of color in a culture dominated by whiteness. The world-premiere performances are presented by UCLA and UC Santa Barbara in April 2022.

Mr. Tines is a member of AMOC and co-creator of The Black Clown, a music theater experience commissioned and premiered by The American Repertory Theater and presented at Lincoln Center. He has premiered works by today's leading composers, including John Adams, Terence Blanchard, and Matthew Aucoin, and his concert appearances include performances of works ranging from Beethoven's Ninth with the San Francisco Symphony to Kaija Saariaho's True Fire with the Orchestre national de France.

Davóne Tines is a winner of the 2020 Sphinx Medal of Excellence, recognizing extraordinary classical musicians of color, and the recipient of the 2018 Emerging Artists Award from Lincoln Center. He is a graduate of The Juilliard School and Harvard University, where he also serves as guest lecturer.

Learn more about Davóne Tines at AlsoAnOperaSinger.org.

For more than 60 years, Musical America has recognized each year's stellar performers with its coveted awards. The annual award categories are Conductor, Composer, Vocalist, and Artist of the Year, which is given for overall achievement. Other awards are presented, depending on the year, for Instrumentalist, Ensemble, Educator, and Collaborative Pianist.

The artists who have accepted their awards represent the pinnacle of artistic achievement during the last five decades. These acclaimed artists and performers include Leonard Bernstein, Igor Stravinsky, Vladimir Horowitz, Beverly Sills, George Balanchine, Arthur Rubinstein, Itzhak Perlman, Isaac Stern, Marilyn Horne, André Previn, Wynton Marsalis, Yo-Yo Ma, Audra McDonald, Peter Sellars, and Yannick Nézet-Séguin.

Musical America authors' in-depth profiles of the artists are included in each year's "Musical America International Directory of the Performing Arts" as well as on MusicalAmerica.com