Tenor David Tayloe to perform as part of Randolph’s Guest Artist Series

Tenor David Tayloe will perform at Randolph in November with frequent collaborator Emily Yap Chua, chair of the College’s Performing Arts Department.

The recital, scheduled for Saturday, Nov. 5, at 3 p.m., will feature song settings of texts by William Shakespeare, as well as Dichterliebe by Robert Schumann. Admission is free.

Tayloe, associate professor of voice at the University of Alabama, has been praised as “a lovely tenor that sings with Mozartean finesse.”

He and Chua made their Carnegie Hall debut in January of 2020, and have also appeared together at the National Opera Center in New York City.

“David is a consummate musician and a wonderful recital partner,” said Chua, Randolph’s Catherine Ehrman Thoresen ’23 and William Erness Thoresen Professor of Music and director of the Guest Artist Concert Series. “This will be our first time performing together since our Carnegie Hall recital, and I’m so excited to bring him back to campus so our students can once again hear a singer of his caliber.”

A native of North Carolina, Tayloe has made appearances with the Aldeburgh Festival, Snape Proms, Santa Fe Opera, Naples Philharmonic, Virginia Arts Festival, the Virginia Symphony, and more.

His recent roles include Tybalt in Roméo et Juliette, Jason in Medea, Albert in Albert Herring, Gastone in La Traviata, Student in Michael Torke’s Strawberry Fields, Rinuccio in Gianni Schicchi, and Mozart in Rimsky-Korsakov’s Mozart and Salieri.

He holds degrees from the University of Miami and Louisiana State University, and the Eastman School of Music, with additional studies at the Britten-Pears Institute at Snape Maltings in Aldeburg, England.

Tayloe and Chua will be doing an outreach event at the Pearson Cancer Center, and he will also be speaking to students about his work in opera and art song during his time in Lynchburg.