BIO
Kyle Anthony Cortés, M.M. (He/Him), is an Afro-Latino composer, music director, singer-actor, sound designer, and educator based in Chicago. Working primarily as an music director and composer for the stage his recent credits include music directing and composing for a guest performance at The Second City of Onward and Off My Parent’s Health Insurance and co-sound designing the world premier of Judy's Life's Work with Definition Theater.
In line with his artistic endeavors he is a teaching artist for the music conservatory at The Chicago High School for the Arts (ChiArts) and has partnered with Forevermore Dance and Theater and Chicago Music and Acting Academy as a private lessons studio instructor covering the areas of voice, guitar, piano, and composition. While at ChiArts, he's designed and lead courses such as: Music Theory Fundamentals, Aural Skills, Vocal Performance Fundamentals 2 (French and German Diction), Treble Choir, and Acting the Song.
Trained in classical voice, Cortés has sung operatic roles such as Lucio Silla in Handel’s Silla, the Witch in Hänsel und Gretel, Don Basilio in Le nozze di Figaro, and Mayor Upfold in Britten’s Albert Herring. Cortés completed his masters degree with honors in vocal performance at DePaul School of Music in Chicago. He relocated to Chicago after having graduated cum laude with two Bachelor of Music degrees from the University of Florida in vocal performance and composition.
His other formal training includes a summer of private research in composition and combination-tones in the live-coding environment MAX/MSP at the Mozarteum Conservatory in Salzburg, Austria under their director of electro-acoustic composition, Dr. Achim Bornhöft, along with six-months of study with Dr. Jourdan L. Howell’s Palm Beach Opera Apprentice Studio. His interest in classical voice and composition led him to join the artistic team at Vizin-Production and Starr-Editing, Media Group as their composer-in-residence and young artist for the 2020-21 season, focusing on digital media productions of art song and opera.
He is eager to share, collaborate, and bring to life stories through dynamic sonorous landscapes.