Conductor Everett McCorvey

Montgomery, Alabama native Dr. Everett McCorvey’s career has spanned all areas of the performing arts business from performer to musical director, stage director, voice teacher, producer, impresario, orchestra conductor, union representative, administrator, and mentor.

McCorvey’s recent conducting engagements include Weill’s The Threepenny Opera with Opera Columbus; This Little Light of Mine by Chandler Carter and Diana Solomon Glover with Kentucky Opera; Joplin’s Treemonisha with Opera Orlando; Sanctuary Road by Paul Moravec and Pulitzer Prize-winning Librettist Mark Campbell with Virginia Opera; Handel’s Messiah at the newly renovated David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center; Carmen with Opera Columbus; Suor Angelica and Gianni Schicchi with the Bay View Opera Festival; Maria de Buenos Aires with Kentucky Opera; the World Premiere of The Secret River by Stella Sung and Mark Campbell with Opera Orlando; Dvořák’s Symphony #9 in Prague’s Smetana Hall with the North Czech Philharmonic, and the Grand Finale Opera Gala at the Mythos Opera Festival. McCorvey also recently served as Music Director and Conductor for the World Premiere of Bounce: The Basketball Opera, conceived and directed by Gretha Holby with lead composer Glen Roven and author and librettist Charles R. Smith, Jr. In the spring of 2024, he was named the inaugural Principal Guest Conductor at Opera Columbus.

Conducting engagements for the 2025-2026 season will include Scalia/Ginsburg with Kentucky Opera and The Anonymous Lover with Opera Columbus.

Dr. McCorvey is the Founder and Music Director of the American Spiritual Ensemble, a group of 24 professional singers dedicated to keeping the American Negro Spiritual and other compositions of African-American composers alive. In its 29-year history, the group has presented over 600 concerts including 20 tours of the United States and 17 tours of Spain. The group has released twelve albums: On My Journey Now–The American Spiritual Ensemble on Tour; Ol’ Time Religion; Lily of the Valley; Swing Low, Sweet Chariot; The Spirituals; The Spirit of the Holidays; The Duke Returns: Duke Ellington Sacred Concerts; Mosaic (featuring Metropolitan Opera star Angela Brown); Stand the Storm (featuring American soprano Jeryl Cunningham); Been in the Storm Too Long (featuring American baritone Kenneth Overton); as well as two CD’s featuring the music of John Jacob Niles, produced by McCorvey and featuring American soprano Hope Koehler. McCorvey also recently produced a CD titled Anchored in the Lord featuring singers from the Bay View Music Festival’s American Negro Spirituals Intensive program, where McCorvey serves as Director.

Dr. McCorvey is also the Artistic Director of the National Chorale. Celebrating 57 years of great choral singing, the National Chorale is a symphonic choir which performs at Lincoln Center in New York City. The group is well-known in New York City and the surrounding region for its performances of choral classics, as well as the popular Messiah Sing-In at Lincoln Center. The Sing-In is one of the oldest such events in the country. On September 11, 2021, McCorvey conducted the National Chorale and the US Army Field Band in New Jersey’s commemoration of the 20th Anniversary of the 9/11 attacks at Liberty State Park.

The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) has produced seven films featuring McCorvey’s work, including a recent performance of the Stars of Tomorrow Opera Gala; It’s a Grand Night for Singing 10th Anniversary; Impresario; A Tribute and a Toast to Opera; The Spirituals; The American Spiritual Ensemble in Concert, and It’s a Grand Night for Singing 25th Anniversary.

Vocal excellence is a hallmark of Dr. McCorvey’s work. As a teacher, he has given masterclasses and vocal workshops throughout the United States, Europe, South America, China, Japan, and Poland. Dr. McCorvey has served on the faculty of the New York State Summer School of the Arts in Saratoga Springs, New York where he was Artist-in-Residence and Associate Conductor and is also a frequent advisory panelist and on-site reviewer for the National Endowment for the Arts Opera/Musical Theatre program in Washington, D.C. He also served on the faculty of the American Institute of Musical Studies (AIMS) in Graz, Austria. He is on the opera faculty of the Bay View Music Festival in Petoskey, MI and co-director of the Festival’s American Negro Spirituals Intensive program.

Dr. McCorvey has been the recipient of numerous awards highlighting his teaching, research and service. Recent awards include the SEC Faculty Achievement Award, which is given to a faculty member from each of the 14 SEC Athletic Conference schools. He was also the recipient of the University of Kentucky Libraries Medallion for Intellectual Achievement. Other awards include the Lexington Music Awards Lifetime Achievement Award (2020); two Regional Emmy Awards for UK Opera Theatre’s summer production of It’s A Grand Night for Singing (2018); the Notable African-Americans in Lexington Award given by the Lima drive Seventh-Day Adventist Church (2018); the Central Music Academy Lifetime Achievement Award (2015); the Alabama Governor’s Artists Award, the highest arts award given to an artist from Alabama (2015); the Salvation Army Community Service Award (2014); and the Camp Horsin’ Around Community Service Award (2014). In 1998, McCorvey was the recipient of the Acorn Award from the Kentucky Advocates for Higher Education. This prestigious award is given to only one Professor in the state of Kentucky who exemplifies excellence, innovation and creativity in teaching and research. Dr. McCorvey was also the recipient of an outstanding faculty award from the University of Kentucky Lyman T. Johnson Alumni Association in 1998 and was selected to receive the Outstanding Alumni Award in the Arts from the Society for the Fine Arts at the University of Alabama, his Alma Mater, in February of 1999. For decades, Dr. McCorvey has been active in volunteer activities in an effort to keep the arts as a part of the civic conversation and currently serves on many local, regional and national boards. In his home state of Kentucky, he is Chairman of the Kentucky Arts Council Board. Nationally, he is on the Sullivan Foundation Board of Trustees, an organization dedicated to supporting young professional singers with career grants and study awards for continuing development. He holds an Endowed Chair in Opera Studies/Director of Opera and Professor of Voice at the University of Kentucky in Lexington, Kentucky.