And with his muscular physique standing at nearly 6 feet 3 inches, Tines challenged the notion of what a classic star should look like. He's Bach's <성 베드로>For the role of Jesus, she wore a sleeveless white robe dress and Prada boots. ‘Matthew Passion’ was performed with the New York Philharmonic last year. (He wrote on Instagram, “Jesus should wear Prada.”) At the Grammys, he wore a sweater dress inspired by her grandmother, and her shoes, as her grandmother often did, before heading to church. Decorated with earrings.
Tines, a gay black man from Northern Virginia, said he often felt like an outsider. From a cafe in Lincoln Center, he looked across the street at his alma mater, the Juilliard School. He began to relate his difficulties, explaining how he felt misunderstood by his teachers and peers because he could not relate to his standard vocal repertoire.
“I had to find my own way,” he said. “I had to find myself in a different way.”
Tynes grew up in Fauquier County, Virginia, about an hour and a half from Washington, where his family has lived for several generations. In his youth, he was keenly aware of the racial and economic divisions of his hometown. He once said that he “grew up on Ralph Lauren ads about slave cemeteries.” He was raised primarily by his grandparents. (His grandmother still calls at least twice a day.)
He grew up singing in a Baptist church in Olean, Virginia. His grandfather, who served in the military and became a chief warrant officer in the Department of Defense, worked as a music director at several churches in the area. But Tines' true passion was for the violin, and he played in youth ensembles, rising to the rank of concertmaster. His grandparents encouraged him to try singing, and during his high school years he starred in “Ragtime” and “Les Misérables.”
He went to Harvard University and studied sociology. It was only when he took part in the production of Stravinsky's opera “The Rake's Advance” that he began to think. More seriously about opera.
At Juilliard, where he enrolled in graduate school, he said he felt dehumanized because people looked at him “for what he could do as opposed to who he was.” He also felt disconnected from works such as Schubert's 'Winterreise', which were part of his core repertoire. The song describes a man coping with rejection from the woman he loves.