About Roderick George
Tenor Roderick George is an acclaimed concert soloist, recitalist, and operatic performer whose collaborations with orchestras, choral organizations, and opera companies have distinguished him as a versatile artist with performances throughout the United States and abroad.​
A sought-after concert soloist, Roderick made his Lincoln Center debut as a soloist in Handel's Messiah and continues to appear as the work's tenor soloist with orchestras and choral organizations throughout the United States, among them the Alabama Symphony Orchestra, North Carolina Baroque Orchestra, Highland Park Chorale, and El Paso Choral Society. Recent engagements have included Hailstork's I Will Lift Up Mine Eyes with the Nashville Symphony, Mozart's Requiem with the Northwest Florida Symphony, Carmina Burana with Northeastern Pennsylvania Philharmonic, Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 with the Alabama Symphony Orchestra, Lili Boulanger's Faust et Hélène with the New York Repertory Orchestra, and DvoÅ™ák's Stabat Mater with Highland Park Chorale. Recognized as a premier interpreter of R. Nathaniel Dett's The Chariot Jubilee, Roderick has championed this significant work through numerous performances with ensembles throughout the United States, including the Alabama Symphony Orchestra, University of Maryland Symphony Orchestra, Savannah Philharmonic, Cleveland Orchestra Youth Chorus, and Southern Oregon University with the Rogue Valley Chorale, as well as multiple performances and a recording with the Oakwood University Aeolians.
Photo Credit: Amarr Crosley
Internationally, Roderick has appeared with Russia's Orpheus Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Krasnoyarsk Philharmonic and was honored to perform at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow as a cultural ambassador. Praised for his “lyrical and profoundly expressive” voice (TriangleSings North Carolina), Roderick has performed a wide range of principal lyric tenor roles, including Alfredo in La Traviata, Rodolfo in La Bohème, Nemorino in L'elisir d'amore, Tamino in Die Zauberflöte, Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni, Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly, Sportin’ Life in Porgy and Bess, Roméo in Roméo et Juliette, Gérald in Lakmé, the title role in Albert Herring, Ferrando in Così fan tutte, Ralph Rackstraw in H.M.S. Pinafore, Camille de Rosillon in The Merry Widow, and David in I Was Looking at the Ceiling and Then I Saw the Sky. His operatic engagements have included performances with companies such as Opera Birmingham, Dayton Opera, Pensacola Opera, Asheville Lyric Opera, Lyric Opera Cleveland, Opera Wilmington, Union Avenue Opera, Opera Theatre of Pittsburgh, Amarillo Opera and Greensboro Opera.
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An accomplished song recitalist and champion of American art song, Roderick has a particular interest in the songs of H. T. Burleigh and works set to the poetry of Paul Laurence Dunbar and Langston Hughes. He gave the world premiere of Adolphus Hailstork’s Four Romantic Love Songs on poems by Dunbar and is featured on the recently released recording of Doug McConnell’s Langston’s Lot, a song cycle for tenor, alto saxophone, and piano. A multifaceted artist, he is a featured soloist on the roster of the American Spiritual Ensemble, with whom he has toured internationally throughout Europe and South America, including performances in Ireland, France, Ecuador, and Spain. He is also a featured soloist with the Jason Max Ferdinand Singers, appearing with the ensemble at the BBC Proms at Royal Albert Hall in London.
Based in Birmingham, Alabama, Roderick maintains an active career as a performer and educator as Professor of Music at the University of Montevallo and Summer Artist-in-Residence at the Bay View Music Festival in northern Michigan.
"Roderick George sang with such control and ease as to imply Ottavio’s arias are simple. Mr. George’s tenor is lyrical and profoundly expressive. His intelligent and well conceived acting realized Ottavio’s deep love for Anna through understated, reserved mannerisms that only occasionally allowed his frustrations at being unable to enact vengeance to show through."
William Adams, TriangleSings North Carolina