Blair Master Series: David Tayloe, tenor

Enjoy an exhilarating matinee performance on Saturday, February 21, as Blair School of Music welcomes esteemed tenor David Tayloe with pianist Richard Masters. An active recitalist and collaborator, Tayloe serves as associate professor of voice at the University of Alabama.

Saturday, February 21, 2026 | Turner Recital Hall | 2:30 p.m.

Purchase Tickets: http://blair.live/tayloe-022126-tix

About David Tayloe:

A native of North Carolina, tenor David Tayloe has been praised for his “lovely tenor that sings with Mozartean finesse.” He has made appearances with the Aldeburgh Festival, Snape Proms, Charleston Symphony Orchestra, Alabama Symphony Orchestra, Santa Fe Opera, Opera Louisiane, Opera Birmingham, Mississippi Opera, Naples Philharmonic, Virginia Arts Festival, The Virginia Symphony, and many others. His recent roles include Tybalt in Roméo et Juliette, Jason in Medea, the title role in Albert Herring, Gastone in La Traviata, Student in Michael Torke’s Strawberry Fields, Rinuccio in Gianni Schicchi, the title role in Bernstein’s Candide, and Mozart in Rimsky-Korsakov’s Mozart and Salieri.

​An avid performer of art song, Tayloe made his solo recital debut at Carnegie Hall in January of 2020. He also completed a national tour of Schubert’s Winterreise culminating in a featured recital at the National Opera Center in New York City. An active recitalist in both the US and the UK, he has been a prize winner of The American Prize in the Men’s Art Song category.

​​David Tayloe holds degrees from the University of Miami, Louisiana State University, and the Eastman School of Music. He also studied at the Britten-Pears Institute at Snape Maltings in Aldeburgh, England. In the fall of 2014, David joined the faculty of the University of Alabama where he serves associate professor of voice and is actively in demand as guest teacher and clinician around the country.

About Richard Masters:

Richard Masters is a soloist, opera coach, chamber musician, and orchestral pianist based in Blacksburg, Virginia, where he is an associate professor of piano and collaborative piano at the Virginia Tech School of Performing Arts.

Masters’ significant collaborations include concerts with baritone Donnie Ray Albert, flutist Valerie Coleman, mezzo-soprano Marta Senn, the late mezzo-soprano Barbara Conrad, and many others. He has appeared with former Boston Symphony principal trombonist Norman Bolter, former Juilliard String Quartet violinist Earl Carlyss, saxophonist Harvey Pittel, and under the baton of the late Lorin Maazel. Masters has performed solo, chamber, and vocal recitals throughout the United States and in Europe.

Masters is a Yamaha Artist. He holds a BA from the University of Colorado at Boulder, a MM from The Juilliard School, and a doctorate from the Eastman School of Music.