Baritone Sankara Harouna hails from the South Side of Chicago, and studied music at Kentucky State University.  He began his musical journey in the traditional arts of West African culture, music and drumming, and has had the opportunity to perform across the country singing different styles of music from jazz to gospel to classical. For the 2021-22 season, Sankara premiered with The Atlanta Opera as a Glynn Studio Artist where he made his debut with in Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Pirates of Penzance as Samuel. In the summer of 2021, he portrayed the role of The Officer in Rossini’s The Barber of Seville with Cincinnati Opera where he was slated to be a 2020 Young Artist, until the season was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Sankara also portrayed the role of Derrick Wheatt in Cincinnati Opera’s 2019 World Premiere of Blind Injustice by Scott Davenport Richards and David Cote. He has also performed numerous times with the Kentucky Opera, including performing the role of The Page in Gian Carlo Menotti’s Amahl and the Night Visitors in 2018, and the role of First Prison Guard in Jake Heggie’s Dead Man Walking in 2017. He also was a featured soloist in Kentucky Opera’s Holiday Celebration in December 2021. He was part of the 2018 inaugural class of Canto Vocal Programs singing the role of Antonio in The Marriage of Figaro, a lead jazz vocalist with the Avant-Garde Hip HOpera by David Boykin, and was a featured artist in the Six Degrees Women Composers Concert where he sang compositions by Regina Harris Baiocchi and Ann E. Ward. In the summer of 2022, he will be an Apprentice Artist with Des Moines Metro Opera where he will make his debut as Nelson in the Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess.

Debut Production : The Pirates of Penzance, 2022