Oral Moses

Gospel Choir and Professor Emeritus of Voice Bass-baritone, School of Music

Oral Moses has been on the Kennesaw State University voice faculty since 1984, as Professor of Voice and Music Literature. Dr. Moses also performs regularly throughout the United States and Europe singing concert works, oratorio, recitals and a wide variety of art song repertoire with special emphasis on vocal works of African-American composers.

Dr. Moses has had numerous successes with American opera companies performing major roles in The Marriage of Figaro, Regina, la Boheme, Albert Herring, Tremonisha, Rigoletto, and The Magic Flute. Symphonic engagements include work with the Nashville, Jackson, Detroit, Lansing, Tacomo and Atlanta Symphony Orchestras. In 1983 he toured Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and Austria and ended in Berlin singing the role of Porgy in Gershwin's Porgy and Bess.

The South Carolina native began his singing career as a member of the United States Seventh Army Soldiers Chorus in Heidelberg, Germany and a member of the famed Fisk Jubilee Singers while attending Fisk University where he received his undergraduate degree. He was then awarded a Thomas J. Watson Fellowship for further study in vocal performance and opera in Europe. Upon his return to the states, he attended the University of Michigan where he earned a MM and DMA in vocal performance and opera.

In 1986 as a recipient of the National Endowment for Humanities Grant, he co-authored a book entitled Feel the Spirit * Studies in Nineteenth Century Afro-American Music, published by Greenwood Press. In 1991 he was awarded a second NEH Grant to study the broad spectrum of American music. His CD recordings, Deep River: Songs and Spirituals of Harry T. Burleigh and Amen! African-American Composers of the Twentieth Century are on Albany Records label. Learn more at oralmoses.com.