In life, we each have an opportunity to succeed in anything we desire if we put our minds to it. For opera singer and Trilogy: An Opera Company owner, Kevin Maynor, the desire for opera revealed talent that took him many places and changed his life.
“He’s got the world in his hands, He’s got the world in his hands, He’s got the whole world in his hands, He’s got the world in his hands,” Maynor singing pridefully with beauty.
When it comes to performing arts, it is very competitive to get your name and voice heard on stage. Maynor, however, has been able to get his voice and name heard throughout 33 countries including France, Canada, Russia, Brazil, Chile, Australia, Africa, India, and China. “I always knew what I wanted to do and it was music,” said Maynor.
Maynor has been performing opera for 50 years in 60 opera roles in five different languages. His career includes singing with the The Metropolitan Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, New York City Opera, Sante Fe Opera, Opera Orchestra of New York, Cincinnati Opera, Teatro Municipal of Santiago, Florida Grand Opera, Pittsburgh Opera, Dallas Opera, Minnesota Opera, Boston Lyric Opera, Knoxville Opera, Des Moines Metro Opera, Pacific Opera VIctoria, New Jersey State Opera, Scottish Opera, Austin Lyric Opera, Saratav Opera, Mobile Opera, Mississippi Opera, and Opera Pacific.
He has also recorded song tracks for Telarc, Fleur de Son Classics, Guild, Legato Records, Roven Records, and Sony Music. Fanfare magazine reviewed Maynor’s CD Paul Robeson and said, “This is a superb voice, a voice to compare not only to Robeson but also to the very greatest bass voices of the century such as Alexander Kipnis, Boris Christoff, and Ezio Pinza.”
A New York native, Maynor earned his elementary and middle school education at the William C. Cuttle School in Banstville, NY. After graduating the William C. Cuttle School, he attended Tuckahoe High School in Eastchester, New York. While at Tuckahoe High, he won a scholarship to attend the Manhattan School of Music in New York, NY.
Upon graduating the Manhattan School of Music with a diploma in musical performance, Maynor attended Bradley University where he received his bachelors in music education. After receiving his bachelors, he received his masters in M.M. Vocal Performance from Northwestern University, as well an honorary degree in Music Voice from the Moscow Conservatory in Moskva, Russia. He also has a doctorate in music from Indiana University in Bloomington.
Maynor’s recognition and accomplishments include being a George London Award recipient, Fulbright Award winner, Richard Tucker Career Grant winner, and being sponsored as a recitalist by the U.S. State Department, Rockefeller Foundation, Arts America, and the Pew Charitable Trust. Each accomplishment for Maynor recognizes his passion for opera. “These awards allowed me to perform throughout the world and with many composers,” he said.
His performances include includes the U.S. Premiere of Joe Louis by Count Basie at the Jazz Institute of Rutgers University in New Jersey, the World Premiere of Five by Anthony Davis at The New Jersey Performing Arts Center for Newark’s 350th Anniversary with Trilogy: an opera Company, David Geffen Hall or Avery Fisher Hall with The National Chorale for the Messiah, in Das Rheingold at NJPAC, by Richard Wagner in New Jersey, Opera Theater of Pittsburg in their Summer Fest in A GATHERING OF SONS, by Dwayne Fulton, Treemonisha with The Mississippi Symphony as well as for Trilogy: AOC, cameo performance in Malaga, Spain, of the Reprise of Nat Turner by Michael Raphael, singing Trent Johnson’s title role, Kenyatta at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center, his own written play Hunding in Wagner’s Die Walkuere to the Victoria Opera House in Newark, NJ, Don Basilo in IL Barbiere di Siviglia with the New York City Opera, both Fafner in Das Rheingold and Colline in La Boheme with Dallas Opera, Daland in Der Fliegende Hollander, Sparafucile in Rigoletto Shostakovich’s Song of the Forest with the Kalamazoo Symphony, Verdi Requiem with The Choral Arts Society in Washington, D.C. in Honor and of the late President John F. Kennedy at the Kennedy Center Concert Hall, Carnegie Hall, and more.
The composers he had worked with or produced his performances include Adolphus Hailstork, Michael Raphael, Anthony Davis, Anthony Rushmore, Dorothy Rudd Moore, Trevor Weston, Scott Joplin, Trent Johnson, Richard Thompson, and many others.
In 2003, Maynor notice a need to promote the need of black composers and realized that people didn’t seem to have much for black people in music. He decided to start Trilogy: AOC company in Newark, NJ to help African American composer’s work be presented. “It’s important to have African Americans significant voices be heard because our stories are larger than life. With the enhancement of music and history of the African American race, it makes it very beautiful and expressive,” he said.
Thompson is a Ivor Novello Award winner and Grammy Award nominee. The Ivor Novello award, is named after British composer and actor Ivor Novello. This award is presented annually since 1956 in London by the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers, and Authors. Trilogy premiered his opera, The Mask in the Mirror. “The production was very good and it gave me a chance to see whether the ideas I had in my head would work on stage. The traditional world of opera is exceedingly Eurocentric. America has the great hits has the greatest degree of racial and cultural diversity in the world. This is not reflected in the area of classical music and it needs to change. Trilogy Opera Company is taking definite steps towards heightening awareness of cultural diversity,” said Thompson.
Trilogy performed Thompson’s opera again in 2014, and Maynor commissioned him to write a piece for him and chamber orchestra, entitled Five Aspects of Othello. Maynor gave Thompson five soliloquies from Shakespeare’s Othello to set to music. The soliloquies follow the development of the play, from very early in their marriage to the tragic end. “Kevin has a truly wonderful voice and I look forward very much to hearing him sing my piece. The piece is quite innovative,” he said.
Maynor and Trilogy are preparing for performances of Richard Wagner’s Ring, Sassy, story of William and Sarah Roache, Odell, the story of Shakespeare, Zig Freed, and an opera on Frederick Douglas which will be performed at the Central Theatre and NJPAC (New Jersey Performing Arts Center) in Newark, New Jersey.
