Damian Norfleet
Interdisciplinary Performer-Composer-Improviser
Performer-composer Damian Norfleet “is a gifted improvisational singer, performance artist, actor, and
social justice activist who has occupied a rare multi-dimensional space in the performing arts” (I Care If You Listen). Norfleet “brings a full range of emotions” (Boston Globe) and “commands both stage and screen with a strong presence and powerful singing” (EDGE).
Damian has performed at Lincoln Center, Roulette, National Sawdust, New York Society for Ethical Culture, Kaufman Music Center, The Times Center, and multiple Off-Broadway theaters. Damian’s compositions have been played in fun spaces like the Performing Arts Library at Lincoln Center, Brooklyn Public Library/Central Library, and The Center at West Park; he is a 2024 Composing Fellow in the Gabriela Ortiz Composition Studio and is currently creating his first opera Man in the Moon—a monodrama for voice and percussion. He’s conducted a sound/movement masterclass at Bennington College and a vocal health seminar for the performers at Hong Kong Disneyland. Norfleet has workshopped the libretto of an opera about African American folktales with the John Duffy Institute for New Opera, directed an opera about the New York City Police Department’s controversial “Stop-and-Frisk” policy with American Opera Projects, and worked with students at the Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program at NYU|Tisch on the creation of new musicals and operas. He co-curated concerts Young, Gifted, and Black (performed alongside the Lumpkin-Boccuzzi Family Collection of contemporary art by African American artists), and Love in Times of Alienation with the Concerts in the Heights ensemble, both presented at New York’s Lehman Art Gallery.
Damian, a Barrymore Award-winning and Planet Connections Theatre Award-winning actor, played a featured role in the Drama Desk Award-nominated production of the Threepenny Opera and the lead role in the ACLU of Massachusetts’ co-production the hit musical Ragtime. On screen, Damian starred in the comedy series Co-operation with Lucy Goranson and Phoebe Robinson, partnered with Andre Braugher in the feature film Emily & Tim (starring Olympia Dukakis), and is currently cast as Pharaoh Akhenaten in the afro-futuristic feature film trilogy Protector of the Gods (in pre-production). Damian has been a vocal soloist and improviser with the International Contemporary Ensemble and Ensemble Pi; a principal vocalist with the Glimmerglass Opera, Portland Opera, Dream Unfinished Orchestra, University of Michigan Symphony Orchestra, Mount Holyoke Symphony Orchestra; a guest artist at the New England Conservatory; and an artist-in-residence at the Walden School and Bread and Puppet Theater.
Damian’s upcoming performances include appearances with the International Contemporary Ensemble, Ensemble Pi, the Washington Chorus, and the National Philharmonic Orchestra.