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Jeff Kensmoe
Jeff Kensmoe
Opera Director
Office:
Hill Hall 118
Contact Information:
Birmingham-Southern College
Box 549033
900 Arkadelphia Rd
Birmingham, AL 35254
Office Phone: (205) 226 4948
Office Fax: (205) 226 3044
E-mail: [email protected]
Brief Biography:
Jeff Kensmoe is currently the Opera Director at Birmingham-Southern College and has been with the faculty since the fall of 2010. He received his Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Wisconsin at Eau Claire, pursued graduate studies at the University of Maryland at College Park and received his Masters of Music and Doctor of Arts degrees from the University of Northern Colorado. He has taught at the University of Wisconsin at Eau Claire, St. Francis De Sales Parochial School in Spooner, Wisconsin, Aims Community College in Greeley, Colorado and Wayland Baptist University in Plainview, Texas.
Dr. Kensmoe has spent a number of years living and working out of Washington D.C. and New York City where he premiered the roles of Jake Pewlet in Roger Ames' Amarantha, Amos in Lawrence Moss' The Queen and the Rebels, and was a featured vocalist in Grace Ann Adamo Companies' Drowned Woman of the Sky. He found success bridging the Opera/Musical Theatre gap touring the world with Phillip Glass' Einstein on the Beach, Europe in the title role of Yeston/Koppit's Phantom, the United Kingdom as Raoul in The American Phantom, and the United States in Alan Hovhaness' Killer of Enemies in which he narrated the title role for the Eric Hawkins Dance Company. Some of his Opera and Musical Theatre roles include Papageno in The Magic Flute, Peter in Hansel and Gretel, Giralimo in The Secret Marriage, Horace Tabor in The Ballade of Baby Doe, Judge in Trial by Jury, Frank Maurant in Street Scene, Lancelot in Camelot, Ace Gruver in Sayonara, Georg in She Loves Me, Raoul in Ken Hill's Phantom of the Opera, Michael in I Do! I Do!, and the Shepherd in the off-Broadway production of Bending Toward the Light: a Jazz Nativity. Dr. Kensmoe has also been involved in musical revues such as Silver Screen Serenade, Fantasy Spectacular, and Americansk Musical Kavalkade, a two person musical revue performed in Denmark. He has been a baritone soloist in a number of Masses and Oratorios across the United States, including Bloch's Sacred Service, Stravinsky's Les Noce, Brahms' A German Requiem, Faure's Requiem, Mozart's Grabmusik and Requiem, Clausen's a new Creation, Mendelssohn's Elijah, Haydn's Pauken Messe and Theresien Messe, Schubert's Mass in G and Mass in E Flat, and Handel's Messiah.
Dr. Kensmoe has appeared on television in the Sondheim Gala at Carnegie Hall on PBS, in the Guiding Light on CBS and was a guest artist at the New Zealand and former West German Embassies. He has also been involved with various recordings, a Pre-School Power educational video, a Charlie Rudo Sports commercial out of Baltimore, and a radio/television jingle in his home state of Wisconsin. He currently is an active member of the National Association of Teachers of Singing and the Actor's Equity Association.
Educational Background:
2004-2012: Doctor of Arts, University of Northern Colorado
Emphasis: Vocal Performance
Secondary Emphasis: Opera Directing
Dissertation: Musical Signification of Three Jungian Archetypes Found
in Children's Opera2002-2004: Master of Music, University of Northern Colorado
Emphasis: Vocal Performance1982-1988: Bachelor of Music, University of Wisconsin at Eau Claire
Emphasis: Vocal Performance
Areas of Academic Interest:
- Jungian Psychology
- Quantum Physics
- Cymatics
Courses Taught:
- MU 112 Southern Chorale
- MS 120, MS 320 and MS 420 Private Voice
- MU 242 Opera Workshop