Kannan Vasudevan

For info about Kannan’s work as a psychotherapist, please visit here

Kannan Vasudevan,

tenor, has performed in opera, oratorio, and vocal chamber works from the Baroque to contemporary music. Highlights of his stage experience include the title role in The Play of Daniel, Ariadne auf Naxos (Dance Master), The Magic Flute (Monostatos), Purcell’s The Indian Queen (Fame), and Britten’s Owen Wingrave (Epilogue Ballad Singer). Critics have noted that Kannan “sang sweetly” (Opera Magazine) and has been praised as “lively” (Opera News), bringing “a deep homespun warmth with his clear friendly tenor” (National Sawdust), and offering “aptly created characterizations” (Opera Today).

A champion of new works, he has performed premiers by numerous composers including Derrick Skye, Brian McCorkle, Jorge Sosa, Melissa Shiflett, Del’Shawn Taylor, Niloufar Nourbakhsh, Yi Qian, William David Cooper, and Inessa Zaretsky. He played multiple roles in Kamala Sankaram’s Thumbprint, which premiered at the 2014 Prototype Festival in New York and was remounted to wide acclaim at LA Opera in 2017.

An accomplished concert soloist, Kannan has sung the First Elder in Handel’s Susanna, the Evangelist in Bach’s Christmas Oratorio, Bach’s Magnificat & Mass in G Major, Handel’s Messiah, Charpentier’s Pastoral de Noël, Mozart’s Requiem, Saint-Saëns’ Christmas Oratorio, David Lang’s Battle Hymns, and numerous cantatas and chamber works by Bach, Schütz, Charpentier, Britten and Julius Eastman. He appeared as Jesus in A Jazz Passion with its composers, noted jazz musicians Andy Tecson, Bobby Schiff, and Bobby Lewis.

His opera company appearances include Beth Morrison Projects, Little Opera Theatre of NY, Experiments in Opera, American Chamber Opera Company, Bronx Opera, and Opera on Tap, and such concert groups as the Collegiate Chorale, St. Peter’s Bach Collegium, Hudson Valley Singers, Long Island Choral Society, Choral Chameleon, Cantata Singers, and Choeur Régional Provence.

As a professional chorister, Kannan has performed with numerous ensembles in the New York City area, including the New York Virtuoso Singers, Bard Festival Chorale, New York Choral Artists, Bach Choir of Holy Trinity Lutheran, and St. Bartholomew’s Summer Festival Choir. He currently serves as choir member and cantor at Corpus Christi Church and Church of Notre Dame in NYC. Kannan has studied at the Aspen and Bowdoin Summer Music Festivals and was a winner of the Wesleyan University Concerto Competition.