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Robert Honeysucker (January 14, 1943– October 7, 2017 ) was an American baritone, hailed by the Boston Globe as “a fixture of Boston’s musical landscape over some four decades.”[1]
Biography
Robert E. Honeysucker, Jr. was born in Memphis, Tennessee. His father, Robert E. Honeysucker,[2] was a preacher. [3] He was one of four children of Robert Sr. and Willa Ann Honeysucker.[2]
Honeysucker grew up in the South in the 1960s, becoming an activist for social change at an early age. He joined the youth division of the NAACP, worked to register voters in order to help the election of John F. Kennedy, and befriended activist Medgar Evers.[1]
He earned his bachelors degree in music education from Tougaloo College and his master’s degree from Miami University of Ohio.[1] He returned to Mississippi to teach and conduct Tougaloo’s choir. He moved to Boston, Massachusetts in 1972 for additional graduate work at Boston University.[1]
Honeysucker came to be known in Boston for his versatility as a performer. He “performed at one time or another with nearly all of the region’s major classical music and opera organizations, as well as with national and international ensembles.”[1] Beginning in the 1980s, he was featured regularly by the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the Boston Pops.[1] By the 1990s, he was also a regular at the Boston Lyric Opera, performing roles such as Stephen Kumalo in Lost in the Stars, by Kurt Weill and Maxwell Anderson; Master Ford in Verdi’s Falstaff; and Escamillo in Carmen on the Common, a public park production of Bizet’s Carmen performed for an estimated 140,000 people.[4]
Other roles Honeysucker was known for include Rigoletto, Sharpless, Germont, and Iago.[1] As an oratorio singer, he was known for performances in Mendelssohn’s Elijah and Handel’s Messiah.[1] He was also passionate about the Great American Songbook, presenting an annual concert for many years.
Honeysucker was supported by Videmus to record five discs featuring the works of African-American composers,[1] including "Music of William Grant Still" (New World), "Watch and Pray" (Koch International), "More Still" (Cambria), “Highway 1, USA” (Wm. Grant Still) released by Albany Records, and “Good News” (Videmus Records).[5]
A devoted teacher, Honeysucker was on the faculty at the Boston Conservatory and the Longy School of Music.[1]
References and further reading
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j "Robert Honeysucker, 74, baritone who overcame barriers - The Boston Globe". BostonGlobe.com. Retrieved 2019-10-12.
- ^ a b Obituary, Legacy.com
- ^ Lee Eisman, “Robert Honeysucker: We Will Always Feel the Spirit”, The Boston Musical Intelligencer, October 9, 2017
- ^ Staff, B. L. O. "Remembering Robert Honeysucker". blog.blo.org. Retrieved 2019-10-12.
- ^ "Robert Honeysucker Biography" (PDF). Classical Scene. Retrieved 10/12/2019.
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