Cedric Berry

CEDRIC BERRY, bass-baritone, received his music diploma from Interlochen Arts Academy, and both his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from the University of Southern California. He gained his first professional experience as a Resident Artist with Los Angeles Opera, performing the roles of Fiorello in The Barber of Seville, Schaunard in La Boheme, Second Philistine in Samson et Dalila, Wagner in Faust, Crébillon in La Rondine, and First Mate in Billy Budd.  Other roles include the title role in Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi, Collatinus in Britten’s The Rape of Lucretia, Falstaff in Nicolai’s Merry Wives of Windsor, and Sarastro in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte all with USC Opera, Méphistophélès in Gounod’s Faust with Pacific Repertory Opera, Leporello in Mozart’s Don Giovanni with UCLA Opera, Dewaine in John Adams’ I Was Looking at the Ceiling and Then I Saw the Sky with Long Beach Opera, and The Good Man in Anne LeBaron’s Crescent City with The Industry.  Cedric made his first European stage appearances as Jake in a concert version of Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess in Madrid, and Cuenca, Spain.  He also appeared with Los Angeles Opera at the Savonlinna Opera Festival singing the role of First Nazarene in Salome, and sang a concert in tribute to Paul Robeson for the Banlieues Bleues festival in Paris, France. 

On the concert stage he has appeared with Bakersfield Symphony, Fresno Philharmonic and Santa Fe Symphony in Handel’s Messiah, Pacific Symphony in Mozart’s Great Mass in C minor, Arizona Symphony as Balthazar in Amahl and the Night Visitors, the Telemann Chamber Orchestra in a performance of Handel’s Messiah in Tokyo, Japan and of Bach’s Christmas Oratorio in Osaka, Japan, the Luckman Jazz Orchestra singing Duke Ellington’s Scared Songs, the New West Symphony as Zuniga in Carmen, the Southwest Chamber Orchestra in Wuorinen’s The Haroun Songbook, the Pasadena Pops Orchestra in Jerome Kern’s Showboat Symphonic Suite, the California Philharmonic in Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess Concert Suite, and the Los Angeles Philharmonic in Michael Torke’s Book of Proverbs.  He has been the recipient of several awards including first place in LA’s Artist of the Future Competition, the Italian Educator’s Vocal Competition, and the Metropolitan Opera Western Region Competition.  Recent Los Angeles engagements include the lead role of Kublai Khan in Invisible Cities, an opera which was a 2014 Pulitzer Prize Finalist.  The production was listed as “Best of 2013” by the Los Angeles Times. The documentary of the production received and Emmy Award, and a CD was recorded and released in Nov. 2014.