Cornelius Johnson, tenor

Tenor Cornelius Johnson’s voice has been described as “expressive and soaring” (The Post Standard, Syracuse, NY). Mr. Johnson’s repertoire encompasses classical, musical theatre, opera, and sacred music. He has performed in Asia, the Caribbean, Europe and throughout the United States. His operatic appearances include roles in Carmen, Don Pasquale, La Bohème, Madama Butterfly, Manon Lescaut, The Magic Flute, and Porgy and Bess. A proponent of new works and works by African American composers, Mr. Johnson has performed with the South Shore Opera Company of Chicago in Harriet Tubman: When I Crossed That Line to Freedom, by Nkeiru Okoye, The Poet by Steven Allen, and Troubled Island by William Grant Still. He has performed in several world premieres such as Freedom Ride, by Dan Shore, with Chicago Opera Theater and with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s African American Network in Renee Baker’s
Baldwin Chronicles: Midnight Ramble, and A Sovereign Pout: A Tribute to Josephine Baker.

Companies with which he has performed include Houston Grand Opera, La Scala in Milan, Los Angeles Opera, Opera Bastille in Paris, Lyric Opera of Chicago’s “Opera in The Neighborhoods”, Opera Theatre of St. Louis, San Francisco Opera, and Teatro Real in Madrid, Spain. His concert repertoire includes Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, DuBois’ Seven Last Words, Handel’s Messiah, Adolphus Hailstork’s I Will Lift Up Mine Eyes, Mendelssohn’s Elijah, Mozart’s Requiem and Missa Brevis, Puccini’s Messa di Gloria and Robert Ray’s Gospel Mass.

In addition to his performance career, Mr. Johnson is an associate professor of music and chair of the Humanities Department at Olive-Harvey College, and an artist faculty of voice in the Theatre Conservatory at Roosevelt University. He is a graduate of Morehouse College, Northwestern University and recently completed the requirements for the Doctor of Musical Arts degree at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.