Cedric Cannon(I)

Renowned for his versatility as a performer, American baritone Cedric Cannon is equally at home on the operatic, musical theater and concert stages. He was born in Fort Worth, Texas to Helen & James Garfield Cannon but he considers San Mateo, CA his home where he attended elementary, Middle and High School. After a stint in the United States Navy he attended San Francisco State University as a Vocal performance major. He has been happily married to soprano La-Rose Saxon since 1995. Since his professional concert debut with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Cedric has appeared with many of the worlds orchestras in a variety of programs, The Filarmonica De Montevideo, The Israel Kibbutz Orvhestra, The Illinois Philharmonic, The Polish Radio Orchestra, The Dayton Philharmonic, Santa Rosa, Oakland, Savannah, Springfield, Eastern Connecticut, Saskatoon, and the Rekeyavek Symphonies. Cedric has also appeared as a guest soloist at the Pushkin Festival, Moscow, the Pawley's Island Musical festival, and the New York Chorale society at Carnegie Hall. He also performs regularly with pianist Leon Bates and wife La-Rose Saxon in concert performances of Gershwin on Broadway and Gershwin by Request. Cedric Cannon's combined talents have been seen on the musical theater stage throughout North America, Asia and Europe. He played the roles of Hamilton Lightfoot and Menuki in the off-Broadway Production of In Dahomey, most notably opposite Shirley Verrett. Other theater credits include his role of Old Deuteronomy in Cats in Hamburg, Germany as well Pish-Tush in the Mikado, starring Steve Allen, Husky Miller in Carmen Jones, Billy Bounce in the New York premiere of Leroy Jenkins' Jazz Opera Three Willies, 'Caid in Fangs with the New York Musical Theater Group, The Governor and Innkeeper in the National Tour of Man of LaMancha and starred as the Pirate King in the Pirates of Penzance. Mr. Cannon made his Broadway debut as Sir Sagramore in the Music Fair Production of Camelot starring Robert Goulet. he work shopped the original musical "Goddess" as Balozi at The O'Neil theater Conference. He has performed with the Oakland Opera's productions of The Barber of Seville, Madame Butterfly and LaBoheme. Cedric performed with the San Francisco Pocket Opera where he debuted the title role of Eugene Onegin, Caspar in Der Freischutz and the role of Lord Cecil in Mary Stuart. Mr. Cannon has performed in productions of Porgy and Bess with the Houston Grand Opera in the role of Jake. Grand Rapids Opera, Edmonton Opera, Carolina Opera, New Orleans Opera and New York City Opera in the role of Crown, Metropolitan Opera in the role of Robbins and sang his first Porgy at the Frankfurt Opera singing with the New York Harlem Opera. Since then he has sung the role of Porgy throughout North America, Great Britain, Ireland, Europe, Japan, Australia and New Zealand.