Lloyd Jenkins, David (1920-2013) | University of Illinois Archives

David Lloyd Jenkins (1920-2013) was an American lyric tenor, arts administrator, and teacher. Lloyd was born in 1920 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He earned a bachelor's degree from the Minneapolis College of Music before attending the Curtis Institute, where he studied with baritone Richard Bonelli. During World War II, he served as a pilot for the Navy. Lloyd's operatic debut was in 1950 with the City Opera in New York, as David in Wagner's Die Meistersinger. He sang in varied productions, from Mozart's The Abduction from the Seraglio to Strauss's Die Fledermaus. Of the most significant of Lloyd's many notable productions is his performance in the American premiere of Britten's Albert Herring in 1949 under the baton of Boris Goldovsky. Lloyd enjoyed not only performances in the United States, but also abroad; he sang at both the Edinburgh Festival and Glyndebourne. Apart from performing, he also directed the Lake George Opera Festival and the Julliard School American Opera Center. He recorded with both Bernstein and Koussevitzky.

In addition to his performance career, Lloyd was an educator, leading the opera programs at the University of Iowa and Hunter College (New York). Between 1965 and 1980, he served as the artistic director of the Lake George Opera. From 1971 to 1985, Lloyd directed the Illinois Opera Theater. He cobducted such works as Carmen, La Boheme, Maddame Butterfly, and A Midsummer Night's Dream. In 1976, he also staged the first college production of Porgy and Bess. Under his tutelage, Erie Mills, Eric Halfvarson, and Jerry Hadley rose to international renown. In 1985, Lloyd left Illinois to direct the Juilliard American Opera Center. Lloyd died in 2013.