Unlike many classical performers, Davóne Tines uses fashion and visual aesthetic devices as tools to enhance his storytelling.
“Being a performer of intersectional identity, considering how I show up in spaces has always been a part of my life and thus a part of my work,” the opera singer and performerTines describes his journey as one unlike most opera singers. He grew up in Virginia playing the violin, and after being encouraged by his grandfather to sing more, began to study voice.
Before becoming a performer, Tines bounced around different sections of arts programming and production, which allowed him to understand the business end of the arts. After a couple of years, in 2011, he finally decided to pursue his passion for performing, which took him to Juilliard. During his time as a student there, he often struggled to connect to the material he was asked to sing.
Tines often chooses clothes that have a deeper meaning to him as a performer than what may be perceived by the audience. When he performed a piece about Breonna Taylor, for example, he wore Wales Bonner. “I was introduced to her work by a stylist I’ve worked with, Julio Cesar Delgado,” he says, adding that he found meaningful not only the ethos behind the designer’s work, but also to be dressed by a Black woman to memorialize a Black woman.