Cheek, John (Taylor)

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Cheek, John (Taylor)

Cheek, John (Taylor), American bass-baritone; b. Greenville, S.C., Aug. 17, 1948. He received a B.Mus. degree from the N.C. School of the Arts, and then studied in Siena with Gino Bechi at the Accademia Musicale Chigiana, where he received the Diploma of Merit. He made his professional debut in 1975. On June 6, 1977, he made his first appearance with the Metropolitan Opera as Ferrando during the company’s visit to the Wolf Trap Farm Park. He then made his formal debut with the company in N.Y. as the physician in Pelléas et Mélisande on Oct. 11, 1977; he later sang Pimen in Boris Godunov, Ferrando in II Trovatore, Wurm in Luisa Miller, Klingsor in Parsifal, and also Panthée in Les Troyens at the opening-night celebration of the Metropolitan’s centenary season in 1983–84. In 1987 he won the N.C. Arts Prize. In 1990 he sang Ramfis in Cincinnati, and in 1996 he returned there as Don Pasquale. On Aug. 28, 1999, he created the role of Lawyer Royall in Paulus’s Summer in Pittsfield, Mass.

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire