Everett McCorvey, Tenor

Professor - Voice
Director - UK Opera Theatre


Degrees:
  DMA University of Alabama 1989
  MM University of Alabama 1981
  BM University of Alabama 1979


Everett McCorvey is a native of Montgomery, Alabama. He received his degrees from the University of Alabama, including a Doctorate of Musical Arts. He has performed in many cities around the world and theaters across the country, including the Metropolitan Opera, the Kennedy Center, Aspen Music Festival, Blossom Music Festival, Whitewater Opera Company, Radio City Music hall, Birmingham Opera Theater, Teatro Comunale in Florence, Italy, Queen Elizabeth Hall in London, England, as well as performances throughout Spain, the Czech Republic, Poland, and Hungary. He is tenor soloist on a CD recording conducted by Maestro Julius Williams featuring the Bohuslave Martinu Philharmonic Orchestra performing the symphonic works of African-American Composers which was released in the fall of 1994. He has returned to the Czech Repbulic to perform with the Bohuslave Martinu Philharmonic under the baton of Maestro Kirk Trevor as well as to the Slovac Republic. He has also appeared in television movies and feature films including The Long Walk Home.

Mr. McCorvey's operatic roles include Don Jose in Carmen, Ferrando in Cosi Fan Tutte, Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni, Fenton in Falstaff, Eisenstein in Die Fledermaus, Puck in La Grande Duchess de Gerolstein, and many others. Orchestra and Oratorio works include the Beethoven Symphony #9, Mendelssohn's Elijah, Mozart's Requiem, Verdi's Requiem, Handel's Messiah, Bach's Mass in B Minor and the St. Matthew Passion, among others.

As a recitalist, Mr. McCorvey has given concerts, masterclasses and workshops throughout the United States, Europe and Asia as a soloist and with his wife, soprano Alicia Helm. This summer, Mr. McCorvey presented a recital and Master Classes in Beijing, China and most recently returned from Warsaw, Poland where he performed with the Warsaw Symphony Orchestra as a part of a commemoration concert for the events of September 11th. Mr. McCorvey is the founder and Music Director of the American Spiritual Ensemble, a group of 16 professional singers performing spirituals and other compositions of African-American composers. In the short six-year history of the group, the group has presented over 75 concerts including two tours of the United States and five tours of Spain. The American Spiritual Ensemble recently released two CDs, On My Journey Now – The American Spiritual Ensemble on Tour, and Ol' Time Religion.

Mr. McCorvey toured the United States, Europe and the Far East with the Sherwin Goldman Production of Porgy and Bess. In 1992 he played the role of Peter in the Asian debut of Porgy and Bess, in Tokyo, Japan. Mr. McCorvey has served on the faculty of the New York State Summer School of the Arts in Saratoga Springs, New York where he was Artist-in-Residence and Associate Conductor and he has been a frequent advisory panelist and on-site reviewer for the National Endowment for the Arts Opera/Musical Theatre program in Washington, D.C.

Mr. McCorvey is also a teacher and vocal advisor to many students in the profession. Mr. McCorvey was chosen by the Kentucky Advocates for Higher Education as the 1998 Acorn Award Recipient. The prestigious Acorn Award goes to only one Kentucky Professor chosen from any University in the state of Kentucky who exemplifies excellence, innovation and creativity in teaching and research. This was the first time in many years that a professor from the University of Kentucky had won the award. Mr. McCorvey was also the recipient of an outstanding faculty award from the University of Kentucky Lyman T. Johnson Alumni Association for 1998 and was selected to receive the Outstanding Alumni Award in the Arts from the Society for the Fine Arts at the University of Alabama in February of 1999. Mr. McCorvey recently produced only the second full-length recording of The Tender Land by Aaron Copland with the University of Kentucky Opera Theatre recorded in Zlin, Czech Republic and released January 2002, featuring singers from the University of Kentucky Opera Program with Kirk Trevor conducting the Boshuslave Martinu Philharmonic Orchestra.

Mr. McCorvey has served as guest Master Clinician at the Opera Theatre of St. Louis Artist in their Artist-In-Training Program, has recently given concerts in Zlin, Czech Republic and Kosice, Slovak Republic with wife Alicia Helm. In the summers, Mr. McCorvey serves on the faculty of the American Institute of Musical Studies (AIMS) in Gratz, Austria. He was recently selected to give a masterclass at the Voice Symposium held by renown professor of Otolaryngologist Rober Thayer Sataloff in Philadelphia. Future engagements in 2002 include a return trip to Spain in the summer, as well as fall concerts in Brazil, Poland and the Czech Republic.

He holds the rank of Professor of Voice and Director of Opera.


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