Wayne Jennings

WAYNE JENNINGS, lyric tenor, is a native of Washington, DC. A graduate of the Duke Ellington School of the Performing Arts and has been called "one of the Nation's top young talents" by the Washington Free Voice and The Washington Post.

Mr. Jennings has performed nationally and internationally in operas, concerts, and recitals. He made his international operatic debut in 2009 at the Amalfi Coast Music and Arts Festival in Italy as Rinuccio in Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi under the baton of Maestro Joe Walsh. Mr. Jennings is in high demand as a soloist throughout the United States and abroad. His oratorio repertoire includes Rossini’s Stabat Mater, Beethoven’s An Die Freude, Haydn’s Third Mass, Handel’s Messiah, Bach’s Magnificat, Saint-Saëns Christmas Oratorio, Schubert’s Mass in G and Ralph Vaughan Williams’ Serenade to Music.  He was also the featured soloist in Adolphus Hailstork’s I Will Lift Up Mine Eyes and R. Nathaniel Dett’s The Ordering of Moses and Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess under the baton of Maestro Stanley J Thurston.  Mr. Jennings is a frequent artist with The Washington National Opera, the Maryland Lyric Opera, The Heritage Signature Chorale, the Washington Concert Opera, The International Opera Theater, and The Dallas Opera.

Mr. Jennings was also a regional finalist and 1st place winner in the National Association of Teachers of Singing Competition, the Leontyne Price Competition for Emerging Artists, Paul Robeson Competition, and the Omega Psi Phi Competition. In addition, he is a recipient of the Merit Award from the National Foundation for the Arts.

Mr. Jennings serves as the Coordinator for the Coalition for African Americans in the Performing Arts — CAAPA “Opera for Fun Youth Outreach Program” and teaches private voice at The Bullis School in Potomac MD. He has furthered his vocal training at George Mason University and the Oberlin Conservatory of Music in The Institute of Voice Performance and Pedagogy with the late Richard Miller. He was also an artist in residence with the Ebony Classical Music Society and the New York City Opera’s Jeunes Solistes.