Robert Honeysucker facts for kids

Robert E. Honeysucker, Jr. (born January 14, 1943 – died October 7, 2017) was an American baritone singer. A baritone is a male singer with a voice range that is lower than a tenor but higher than a bass. He was known for his amazing voice and his many performances in classical music.

About Robert Honeysucker

Robert E. Honeysucker, Jr. was born in Memphis, Tennessee. His father, Robert E. Honeysucker, was a preacher. Robert Jr. was one of four children in his family.

Growing up in the southern United States in the 1960s, Robert became involved in social change at a young age. He joined the youth group of the NAACP. The NAACP is an organization that works for equal rights for African Americans. Robert helped people register to vote, which means signing up to be able to vote in elections. He wanted to help John F. Kennedy get elected. He also became friends with a famous activist named Medgar Evers.

Robert studied music in college. He earned his first degree in music education from Tougaloo College. Later, he got his master's degree from Miami University of Ohio. After finishing his studies, he went back to Mississippi. There, he taught music and led a choir at Tougaloo College. In 1972, he moved to Boston, Massachusetts, to study even more at Boston University.

His Singing Career

Robert Honeysucker was famous in Boston for being a very flexible performer in classical music. This means he could sing many different kinds of roles and songs. The newspaper, the Boston Globe, said he performed with almost all the big classical music and opera groups in the area. He also sang with groups from other parts of the country and the world.

Starting in the 1980s, he often sang with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the Boston Pops. By the 1990s, he was also a regular singer at the Boston Lyric Opera. He played many important parts in operas. For example, he was Stephen Kumalo in Lost in the Stars by Kurt Weill. He also played Master Ford in Verdi's opera Falstaff. Another big role was Escamillo in Carmen on the Common. This was a public show of Bizet's opera Carmen in a park, and about 140,000 people watched it!

Robert Honeysucker was also known for other opera roles like Rigoletto, Sharpless, Germont, and Iago. He was also a great oratorio singer. An oratorio is a large musical work for voices and orchestra, usually based on a religious story. He was well-known for his performances in Mendelssohn's Elijah and Handel’s Messiah. He also loved the Great American Songbook. This is a collection of important and popular American songs from the early to mid-20th century. He gave a concert of these songs every year for many years.

Besides singing, Robert Honeysucker was also a voice teacher. He taught at the Boston Conservatory and the Longy School of Music.

His Recorded Music

Robert Honeysucker also recorded music. He worked with a group called Videmus to record five albums. These albums featured music by African-American composers. The albums were:

• 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)
• Good News (Videmus Records)

What People Said About Him

The Boston Globe newspaper called Robert Honeysucker “a fixture of Boston’s musical landscape over some four decades.” This means he was a very important and well-known part of the music scene in Boston for about 40 years.