For his portrayal of Stephen Kumalo, in Kurt Weill’s Lost in The Stars, Baritone Kenneth Overton was nominated for the 2019 St. Louis Theatre Circle Award for “Outstanding Performance in an Opera”. Kenneth is enjoying singing leading roles at some of the world’s great opera houses such as, San Francisco Opera, L’Opera de Montreal, Palacio Bellas Artes, New York City Opera, Deutsche Oper Berlin, and the Royal Danish Opera as well as many regional opera houses in the U.S. including Opera Memphis, Nashville Opera, Utah Festival Opera, Opera Carolina, Toledo Opera, Opera Idaho, and Opera Grand Rapids. Recent appearances include a debut performance a Naxos Label Recording with the Buffalo Philharmonic of Richard Danielpour’s The Passion of Yeshua, and return engagements to the National Chorale at Lincoln Center for Handel’s Messiah, Carnegie Hall with the New England Symphonic Ensemble for Vaughn Williams’ Dona Nobis Pacem, and The Oregon Bach Festival for Mozart’s Requiem, Bach Cantatas 190 and 56, Bach’s Magnificat and Berlioz’s Romeo et Juliet. Kenneth’s 2019/2020 season began with a return to San Francisco Opera in Britten’s Billy Budd and post pandemic will return to Opera Carolina to reprise his role as Civil Rights Leader, Ralph Abernathy in Douglas Tappin’s Opera, I Dream, and a debut with the Oregon Symphony’s Renaissance Ensemble for the world premiere of An African American Requiem by Damien Geter. After a successful World Premier of Adolphus Hailstork’s Nobody Know, Kenneth returns to The Harlem Chamber Players as a soloist in Nathaniel Dett’s “The Ordering of Moses”.

Kenneth is widely recognized for his concert work, having performed as soloist with The New York Philharmonic, Phoenix Symphony, Norwalk Symphony, National Chorale, Duluth Superior Symphony, Tacoma Symphony, Annapolis Symphony Orchestra, Yonkers Philharmonic, Memphis Symphony Orchestra, Oratorio Society of New Jersey, Lexington Philharmonic, Bach Choir of Pittsburgh, Mineola Choral Society, Summit Chorale Festival, New York City Opera's Schomberg Series, Sarasota Symphony, and San Antonio Symphony.  His concert and oratorio repertoire includes Faure’s Requiem, Durufle’s Requiem, Handel's Messiah, Verdi's Requiem, Mozart’s Requiem, Coronation Mass and Vesperae Solennes de Confessore, Christmas Oratorio (Saint-Saëns), Mendelssohn's Elijah, Brahms' Ein Deutches Requiem, Vaughn Williams' A Sea Symphony, Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, Schubert's Mass in A-flat, Dvorak’s Te Deum, Bruckner’s Te Deum, Haydn's Creation and Vaughan Williams' Five Mystical Songs. Kenneth is also regularly featured with the American Spiritual Ensemble as a soloist for annual performances in the USA and abroad.

 Kenneth is also the associate producer of the upcoming documentary, BLACK OPERA. For more information, visit www.KennethOverton.com and www.BlackOperaFilm.com