College of Visual and Performing Arts Dean bruce d. mcclung has announced the appointment of Janinah Burnett as Visiting Assistant Professor of Voice in CVPA’s School of Music.
A versatile singer, actor, musician, writer, arranger, and educator, Burnett is in demand and has thrilled audiences domestically and internationally in opera, recital, musical theatre, jazz, television, and film. Some of her signature operatic roles include Mimí in La bohème, Leila in Les pêcheurs des perles, Donna Anna and Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni, Micaëla in Carmen, Marguerite in Faust, and Violetta in La Traviata. An original cast member of Baz Luhrmann’s La Bohème on Broadway as Mimí, she won a Los Angeles Theater Alliance Award and performed on the Tony Awards Presentation.
Burnett was on the roster of principal artists at the Metropolitan Opera for eight consecutive seasons debuting as Bianca in La Rondine. She was a member of the closing cast of Phantom of the Opera on Broadway, making appearances as “Carlotta Giudicelli” since 2016.
In February 2021, Burnett released her debut album, Love the Color of Your Butterfly, which features musical arrangements and collaborations with some of the world’s finest jazz musicians including Christian Sands, Sullivan Fortner Jr., Casey Benjamin, and Terreon Gully who produced the project. Released on her own record label Clazz Records, Love the Color of Your Butterfly is an amalgamation of jazz, opera, art song, oratorio, rhythm and blues, and spirituals and introduces her concept of “Clazz,” which encourages collaboration and redefines the parameters of genre while embracing parts of history that are erased, widely unknown and forgotten. Love the Color of Your Butterfly has been featured in numerous publications including the Financial Times, Playbill, Broadway World, Downbeat Magazine, and Opera News.
Burnett has been a guest artist and taught masterclasses at Eastern Mennonite University, The Cinema School, Clark University, and Bar Harbor Music Festival. She holds an MM from the Eastman School of Music and a BA from Spelman College.
