BIOGRAPHY

Distinguished American tenor Roderick George made his New York Lincoln Center solo debut in Handel’s Messiah at David Geffen Hall with the National Chorale. He has also appeared at Carnegie Hall as a featured soloist for the Gotham Sings Choral Showcase. Regularly engaged as a soloist in major concert and oratorio works, he has sung over sixty performances of Messiah, including recent appearances with the Alabama Symphony Orchestra, Shoals Symphony, and the El Paso Choral Society. Other recent engagements have included Mozart Requiem with Northwest Florida Symphony, Carmina Burana with Huntsville Symphony, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with the Alabama Symphony, and Hailstork’s I Will Lift Up Mine Eyes for his debut with Nashville Symphony. 

As an international performing artist, George has been heard throughout Russia with the Orpheus Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Krasnoyarsk Philharmonic Orchestra. He has also made appearances at numerous prestigious international festivals and venues such as Festival Internacional de Musica Sacra (Quito, Ecuador), La Folle Journée (Nantes, France), Festival Internacional de la Porta Ferrada (Spain), Festival Internacional de Santander (Santander, Spain), Cayman Arts Festival (Georgetown, Grand Cayman), Notre-Dame Cathedral and the American Cathedral (Paris, France), Lensoveta Palace of Culture (St. Petersburg, Russia), National Opera House (Wexford, Ireland) and the Spaso House of the U.S. Embassy in Moscow. Equally at home on the operatic stage, he has performed a diversity of leading lyric tenor opera roles including Rodolfo in La Bohéme, Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly, Tamino in Die Zauberflöte, Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni, Alfredo in La Traviata, Sportin’ Life in Porgy and Bess, Roméo in Roméo et Juliette, Gérald in Lakmé, the title role of Albert Herring, Ferrando in Cosi fan tutte, Ralph Rackstraw in HMS Pinafore, Camille de Rosillion in The Merry Widow and David in I Was Looking at the Ceiling and then I Saw the Sky. Recent seasons have included his role debut as Nemorino in L’elisir d’amore with Opera Birmingham and the role of Leader in Union Avenue Opera's production of Lost in the Stars.

Photo by Nathaniel Thompson

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An avid song recitalist specializing in art songs set to texts of Paul Laurence Dunbar and Langston Hughes, George was invited to sing the world premiere performance of Adolphus Hailstork’s "Four Romantic Love Songs" on poems of Dunbar at the 2012 African American Art Song Alliance Conference. His "Poetry in Song" themed programs highlighting the writings of Dunbar and Hughes have been enthusiastically received at several colleges and universities, and he has more recently included Doug McDonnell’s song cycle, Langston’s Lot, composed for tenor voice, alto saxophone and piano. He is also a noted interpreter of the art songs of Harry T. Burleigh. His professional choral endeavors have included multiple concert tours throughout the U.S. and abroad with the internationally acclaimed American Spiritual Ensemble and he is a member of the newly formed Jason Max Ferdinand Singers who premiered in the 2021 VOCES8 Foundation "Live from London" Festival Series. He is featured on recordings with the American Spiritual Ensemble and on the 2020 self-titled Aeolians of Oakwood University project as the tenor soloist in Nathaniel Dett's The Chariot Jubilee.

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In addition to his active performance career, Dr. George is a highly regarded voice teacher with nearly two decades of collegiate instructional experience. Based in Birmingham, Alabama, he is Professor of Music and Voice Area Coordinator in the Department of Music at the University of Montevallo. He holds graduate degrees in vocal performance, opera, and musical theater from The Florida State University and Southern Illinois University (Carbondale), with advanced training in Austria at the American Institute of Musical Studies. An active member of the National Association of Teachers of Singing, he was selected nationally for the prestigious NATS Teacher-Internship Program held at Colorado State University, where he studied vocal pedagogy under the tutelage of Clifton Ware. He has studied voice with tenors Larry Gerber, Everett McCorvey, Alfonse Anderson and soprano Jeanine Wagner. In competition, he was a Regional Finalist in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and the NATS Artist Awards competition, and a finalist in the Orpheus National Competition, among others. He has also served on the artist faculty of the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity (Canada). (Updated 9/21)

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