World-renowned Iowan receives honorary degree from Juilliard for his operatic achievements

Iowa's Dr. Simon Estes has another honor to add to his storied collection.

Estes, a bass-baritone performer, received an honorary doctorate from The Juilliard School on Friday, May 20, as part of the school's 117th commencement ceremony.

Estes is a world-renowned opera singer born in Centerville in 1938. He graduated from the University of Iowa and attended Juilliard on a scholarship that eventually led to his 1965 debut in "Aida" in Berlin at the Deutsche Opera and a third-place finish in the Tchaikovsky Competition the next year.

He has performed more than 100 roles in 84 major opera houses. In 1978 he became the first Black male singer to perform at the Bayreuth Festival and is the only person to perform for the 25th, 50th and 75th anniversaries of the United Nations.

Across his long and storied career, he's performed for other noteworthy figures of the 20th century such as Archbishop Desmond Tutu, former French president François Mitterrand and South African president Nelson Mandela.

More:Simon Estes, one voice for a million

Estes has performed for popes and presidents, founded a high school in South Africa and has raised money to combat malaria. Furthermore, he's been acknowledged across the world and in Iowa — in Des Moines alone you can find an amphitheater in the heart of downtown as well as a Des Moines Area Community College school named after Estes.

Other names receiving honorary doctoral degrees in Friday's ceremony included dancer Masazumi Chaya,  Pulitzer prize-winning playwright Suzan-Lori Parks, ethnomusicologist Dr. Ahmad Sarmast and conductor/composer Michael Tilson Thomas.

Iowans will be able to enjoy a performance from Estes when he returns to Des Moines to kick off the Des Moines Metro Opera season on July 1 to play Lawyer Frazier in the opera "Porgy and Bess." He will also serve as a producing adviser for the show.

“I have performed 'Porgy and Bess' on four different continents and at the Metropolitan Opera house in New York," Estes said in the news release announcing the Des Moines Metro Opera season. "This is the greatest American opera ever composed. I feel very blessed that Michael Egel has asked for my advice regarding the production."

Isaac Hamlet covers arts, entertainment and culture at the Des Moines Register. Reach him at ihamlet@gannett.com or 319-600-2124, follow him on Twitter @IsaacHamlet.