Jason McKinney, Bass-Baritone

While in school, Mr. McKinney received the Helen Odom Scholarship, the Music Dean’s Talent Scholarship, and the Chancellor’s Grant for Excellence. Jason was the winner of the 2001 and 2002 Civic Music Association of Milwaukee’s Harold Levin scholarship competition and was awarded the Judges Choice award at the 2001 Metropolitan Opera’s district competition. In 2004 Jason won that competition’s South Carolina District and continued to place second in the Southeastern Regional Finals. Jason has had the opportunity to premiere new works by Kenneth Frazelle, Shelley Olson, Daniel Sonnenberg, Chandler Carter, and Lawrence Dillon. Jason has gone on to perform at such prestigious venues as The Kennedy Center, The White House, The Semper Opera House in Dresden, Germany, The Hamburgische Staatsoper, The Festspielhaus in Baden-Baden, Germany, Opera Kommische in Berlin, Germany, Teatro Massimo Bellini in Catania, Sicily, and The Theatre Carre in Amsterdam Netherlands.

As a young person, Jason was educated in Judaica at the Hillel Academy in Fox Point, WI. There he was first introduced to Jewish music, and that exposure influenced his love of music, spurring him to learn a musical instrument. As a member of a Boy Scout explorer post, Jason learned to play the Albert System clarinet in the New Orleans style and eventually was invited to play with the prestigious Preservation Hall Jazz Band in the French Quarter. Jason spent many hours with the Milwaukee area Boys & Girls Club, playing football, singing in choirs, and performing for sporting events. He eventually earned a university scholarship and helped train younger children how to play New Orleans jazz.

Mr. McKinney has performed on the stage with numerous opera companies in the U.S. and Europe. Some of his favorite roles are the title role in Porgy & Bess, Don Giovanni, Le Nozze di Figaro, Colline in Puccini’s La bohème, Olin Blitch in Carlisle Floyd’s Sussanah, and Crown in the Gershwin’s Porgy & Bess. Mr. McKinney is well known as a quick study and has been called upon to be a last-minute replacement on many occasions, sometimes required to perform a role he did not know before on as little as eight hours’ notice.

As a concert soloist, Mr. McKinney has been featured with the North Carolina Symphony, the Eugene Symphony, and has performed to critical acclaim in Europe, Mexico, the U.S., and Australia. His most recent Winston-Salem Symphony performances include Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 in April 2024 and William Walton’s Belshazzar’s Feast in May 2023.

When not on the stage, Mr. McKinney sings as the cantor in his synagogue in Spartanburg, SC, and composes Jewish liturgical music for Temple Emmanuel in Winston-Salem.