Cherry Duke, A.D.

Cherry Duke joined the faculty of The University of Texas at El Paso Department of Music in 2015, where she teaches applied voice and serves as Director of Opera. Through innovative teaching and insistence on excellence, she invigorated and diversified the opera program at UTEP. She also teaches by example as an active performer in El Paso and around the nation. Duke has performed over 60 principal roles with opera companies and orchestras throughout the US and abroad, including several world premieres. Recently, Duke was a soloist in the world premiere of the EL PASO REQUIEM by Jorge Martín with the El Paso Symphony Orchestra and played Flora in LA TRAVIATA and Julia Child in BON APPÉTIT with El Paso Opera. As an Artistic Associate with El Paso Opera, Duke was a co-producer of the annual GIVING VOICE festival, designed to amplify Latinx voices in opera, and served as Assistant Director for EPO’s 2022 production of Robert Xavier Rodriguez’s opera, FRIDA. In the spring of 2023, Duke produced and directed the world premiere of a chamber opera for young audiences, THE FOX AND THE COOKIE, by Maria Thompson Corley. She is the recipient of a 2021 Career Enhancement Award, a 2022 Liberal Arts Community Engagement grant, and the 2022 Dr. Ann Horak and Charles Horak III Teaching Excellence Endowment Award. This year, she received a “Champion of Diversity” award from Black El Paso Voice and a “Love of Learning” award from Phi Kappa Phi honor society.