Kevin Deas

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 Orchestra, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, and Pacific Symphony, as well as with the most illustrious orchestras on the North American continent, and at the Ravinia, Vail, and Saratoga festivals. 

Kevin Deas’s 2023–2024 season includes performances of Mozart’s Requiem with the Vermont Symphony Orchestra and Mobile Symphony Orchestra, and Handel’s Messiah with the North Carolina Symphony, Washington National Cathedral, Houston Symphony, and NAC Orchestra. Other notable performances in the season include a Gershwin program with the Oregon Symphony and Rochester Philharmonic, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the Pacific Symphony, and Brahms’s German Requiem with Long Beach Symphony Orchestra. He will also be performing the role of Commendatore in Mozart’s Don Giovanni with Boston Baroque, as well as the role of Dick Hallorann in Paul Moravec’s critically acclaimed opera The Shining with Opera Atlanta.

A proponent of contemporary music, Kevin Deas has performed Menotti’s Amahl and the Night Visitors at Italy’s Spoleto Festival, Derek Bermel’s The Good Life with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, and Hannibal Lokumbe’s Dear Mrs. Parks with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. He also enjoyed a 20-year collaboration with the late jazz legend Dave Brubeck.

Kevin Deas has recorded Wagner’s Die Meistersinger (Decca/London) with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra under Sir Georg Solti and Varèse’s Ecuatorial with the ASKO Ensemble under Riccardo Chailly. Other releases include Bach’s Mass in B minor and Handel’s Acis and Galatea (Vox Classics); Dave Brubeck’s To Hope! with the Cathedral Choral Society (Telarc); Haydn’s Die Schöpfung with the Virginia Symphony Orchestra and Boston Baroque (Linn Records); and Dvořák in America (Naxos).