Kevin Deas

Bass-Baritone

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

    Kevin Deas’ 2023-24 season includes performances of Mozart’s Requiem with the Vermont Symphony and Mobile Symphony, Handel’s Messiah with the North Carolina Symphony, National Cathedral, Houston Symphony, and the NAC Orchestra in Ottawa. Other notable performances in the season include a Gershwin program with Oregon Symphony and Rochester Philharmonic, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the Pacific Symphony, Brahms’s German Requiem with Long Beach Symphony Orchestra, and will 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 the Opera Atlanta.

    Kevin Deas past season highlights includes performances of Haydn’s The Creation with the Minnesota Orchestra, Mozart’s Requiem with the Toronto Symphony, Eugene Symphony, Louisiana Philharmonic, Orchestra Iowa, and National Philharmonic & Chorale, Stravinsky’s Pulcinella with the Florida Orchestra, Handel’s Messiah with the New York Philharmonic, National Cathedral, Saint-Saens’ Henry VII with Odyssey Opera of Boston, Verdi’s Requiem with the Orquesta Sinfonica de Mineria and Rhode Island Philharmonic, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the Pacific Symphony and Bach Festival Society of Winter Park, and William Walton’s Façade at the Virginia Arts Festival. He has performed selections from Gershwin with the South Dakota Symphony Orchestra, selections from the musicals Les Miserables, Show Boat, and Ragtime with Providence Singers, in “The Spiritual in White America,” a presentation of black spirituals transformed for the white concert stage by Harry Burleigh and Nathaniel Dett, at the Phillips Collection, and a Christmas concert with the Portland Symphony.

    Other highlights include performances of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with Orquesta Sinfonica de Mineria and the Buffalo Philharmonic, Elgar’s Dream of Gerontius with the National Symphony Orchestra of Mexico, Porgy and Bess with the Florida Orchestra, performances of Handel’s Messiah with the National Cathedral and Virginia Symphony, Bach’s St. John Passion with the Louisiana Philharmonic, Joe Horowitz’s “Dvorak in America” project with the Las Vegas Philharmonic, and Verdi’s Requiem with the National Philharmonic. Kevin Deas has also performed as a soloist in Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis with VoxAmaDeus, in Mozart’s Requiem with Boston Baroque, Handel’s Messiah at the National Cathedral, and Bach’s St. Matthew Passion at Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church (NYC). He also sang the title role in Porgy and Bess with Duisberg Phiharmoniker; in Porgy and Bess: A Symphonic Picture with the Reading Symphony Orchestra, and in a tour of Asia with the Pacific Symphony; sings in Bernstein’s Wonderful Town with the Seattle Symphony; and is soloist with the Delaware and El Paso symphony orchestras, and with the PostClassical Ensemble, with which he was Artist in Residence.

    He has performed Verdi’s Requiem with the Richmond and Winnipeg symphonies and the National Philharmonic, Messiah with Boston Baroque, the Cleveland Orchestra, Seattle and Kansas City symphonies, the National Philharmonic, and at the Warsaw Easter Festival; Mozart’s Requiem with the Alabama and Vermont symphonies; Bach’s St. Matthew Passion with the Grand Rapids Symphony and the Oratorio Society of New York; St. John Passion with the Bach Festival Society of Winter Park and Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de Mexico; Ravel’s L’enfant et les sortilèges with the New York Philharmonic; and Copland’s Old American Songs with the Chicago and Columbus symphonies.

    A strong proponent of contemporary music, Kevin Deas was heard at Italy’s Spoleto Festival in a new production of Menotti's Amahl and the Night Visitors in honor of the composer's eighty-fifth birthday, recorded on video for international release. He also performed the world premieres of Derek Bermel’s The Good Life with the Pittsburgh Symphony and Hannibal Lokumbe’s Dear Mrs. Parks with the Detroit Symphony. His twenty-year collaboration with the late jazz legend Dave Brubeck has taken him to Salzburg, Vienna and Moscow in performances of To Hope! He performed Brubeck’s Gates of Justice in a gala performance in New York.

    Kevin Deas recorded Wagner’s Die Meistersinger (Decca/London) with the Chicago Symphony under the late Sir Georg Solti, and Varèse's Ecuatorial with the ASKO Ensemble under the baton of 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); and Haydn's Die Schöpfung with the Virginia Symphony and Boston Baroque (Linn Records). Dvorák in America (Naxos), features Mr. Deas in the world premiere recording of Dvorák’s “Hiawatha Melodrama” and the composer’s own arrangement of “Goin’ Home” with the PostClassical Ensemble.

  • February 29, 2020: Kevin Deas Performs in Album Release ‘Power of Romanticism and Resurrection’
    - Spotify

    October 9, 2019: Kevin Deas Performs ‘Porgy and Bess’ with the Metropolitan Opera
    - The American Scholar

  • REVIEW: ‘MESSIAH’ BRINGS THE NEW YORK PHILHARMONIC TO CHURCH
    The formidable bass-baritone Kevin Deas brought chilling fervor to “Why do the nations so furiously rage together,” yet exuded palpable joy in “The trumpet shall sound.”
    – Anthony Tommasini, New York Times

    GERSHWIN MUSIC GETS PERFORMANCE IT DESERVES FROM READING SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
    “that beautiful performance, and the soloists – pianist Simon Mulligan, in a return visit after 17 years; soprano Julie-Ann Whitely Green; and bass-baritone Kevin Deas – couldn’t have been better chosen…The second half was devoted to excerpts from “Porgy and Bess,” with Deas and Green portraying the title characters, as well as Clara, Serena, Jake and Sportin’ Life, in a memorable performance that made me wish I could see them starring in the entire opera.”
    – Susan L. Pena, Reading Eagle

    REVIEW: POSTCLASSICAL ENSEMBLE’S ‘DEEP RIVER: THE ART OF THE SPIRITUAL’ AT THE WASHINGTON NATIONAL CATHEDRAL
    “What was crystal clear from the start, however, was the powerful impact of Kevin Deas, bass-baritone soloist, upon the entire presentation.”
    – Ramona Harper, DC Metro Theater Arts

    ‘PORGY AND BESS’ CELEBRATES THE TENACITY OF BLACK AMERICA
    “If you missed the recent performance at The Music Center at Strathmore of George Gershwin’s opera “Porgy and Bess” and featured an all-Black cast in the major singing roles, you missed a jewel of a concert.”
    – D. Kevin McNeir, Washington Informer

    ‘PORGY’ AND ‘SIMON’: TWO WORKS TRYING TO FOLD BLACK EXPERIENCE INTO WESTERN CANON
    “What theatrical verve came across was thanks to the soloists. Director Michael Bobbitt’s spare yet effective staging created more than a whiff of Catfish Row, and drew three-dimensional characterizations from the strong soloists, even in formal concert dress…

    With his elegant delivery and gently rolling bass-baritone, Kevin Deas emphasized the basic decency and civility in Porgy.”
    – Anne Midgette and Joe Banno, The Washington Post

    MOZART’S LAST SYMPHONIC AND CHORAL UTTERANCES
    Highlights of the Tuba mirum section of the Sequence were the successive solo stanzas by bass, tenor, mezzo, and soprano; Steven Lundahl was the trombone soloist in resonant partnership with Kevin Deas.
    – Virginia Newes, The Boston Musical Intelligencer

    BACH’S ‘ST. JOHN PASSION’ HAS MORE HUMANITY THAN ANTI-SEMITISM
    “Mr. Keene had a superb Jesus in the bass-baritone Kevin Deas.”
    – James R. Oestreich, The New York Times

  • Orchestral Repertoire

    KEVIN DEAS bass-baritone

    Orchestral Repertoire

    Bach
    Christmas Oratorio (Baroque pitch only)
    Magnificat
    Mass in B-minor (Baroque pitch only)
    St. Matthew Passion (arias and all bass roles)
    St. John Passion (Christus)

    Beethoven
    Mass in C-Major
    Missa Solemnis
    The Ruins of Athens
    Symphony No. 9

    Brahms
    Ein Deutsches Requiem

    Copland
    Old American Songs (Books 1 and 2)

    Dvořák
    Requiem
    Stabat Mater

    Elgar
    The Dream of Gerontius

    Fauré
    Requiem

    Gershwin
    Porgy and Bess (Bennett and Litton concert versions)

    Glass
    The Passion of Ramakrishna

    Handel
    Messiah
    Israel in Egypt

    Haydn
    The Creation
    Lord Nelson Mass
    Paukenmesse
    Mahler
    Symphony No. 8 (bass only)

    Mendelssohn
    Elijah

    Moravec
    Blizzard Voices

    Mozart
    Great Mass in C-minor
    Requiem

    Puccini
    Gloria

    Rossini
    Stabat Mater

    Telemann
    Der Schulmeister

    Verdi
    Requiem

    Walton
    Belshazzar's Feast

    ***

    Opera Repertoire

    Beeson
    Lizzie Borden (Jason McFarlane)

    Donizetti
    Lucia di Lammermoor (Raimondo)

    Floyd
    Of Mice and Men (George)

    Gounod
    Roméo et Juliette (Gregorio)

    Handel
    Acis and Galatea (Polyphemus)
    Agrippina (Claudio), (Pallante)
    Ottone (Emireno)
    Partenope (Arsace)
    Radamisto (Tiridate)
    Serse (Ariodate)
    Tolomeo (Araspe)

    Monteverdi
    L’Orfeo (Plutone)

    Mozart
    Don Giovanni (Don Giovanni),
    (Leporello), (Masetto)
    Le Nozze di Figaro (Figaro)
    Der Schauspieldirektor (Buff)

    Puccini
    Gianni Schicchi (Betto)
    La Bohème (Colline), (Schaunard)
    La Fanciulla del West (Ashby)

    Purcell
    Dido and Aeneas (Aeneas)

    Rossini
    Il Turco in Italia (Selim)
    Il Viaggio a Rheims (Don Alvaro)

    Stravinksy
    The Rake’s Progress (Nick Shadow)

    Tchaikovsky
    Eugene Onegin (Gremin)

    Verdi
    Ernani (Silva)

    Weill
    Street Scene (Frank Maurrant)

    *Updated January 2024