John Cunningham

Baritone |  Bill Bobstay (Boatswain)

Tired of his incessant humming and suspecting that he might not be endowed with many other useful gifts, the Cunninghams counseled their son that life would probably  be a better experience for him if he were to sing in any choruses that he might encounter,  whereupon they kissed him on the cheek and sent him off to boarding school. After the usual assortment of church choirs, school choruses and college Glee Clubs, he soldiered in Germany, and sang with an oratorio group and joined the Opera Chorus of the Augsburger Stadttheater for five seasons. Returning to the USA some years later, John discovered Gilbert and Sullivan and Walter Nowick's Surry Opera Company for the past 33 years. John’s operatic choral participation in Augsburg have included: Der Meistersinger,  Parsifal, Thannhäuser, Dutchman, La Forza, Sicilian Vespers, Trovatore, Carmen,  Fidelio, Boris Godunov, Les Trojens, an assortment of sacred Choral works and lots of Vienese Operetta. John was privileged to participate in last year’s WHMF Zauberflöte.

This is his fourth time on the crew of the Pinafore, his third time as Bo’sun.  He also has been Dick Deadeye, and. If fact served as Bo’sun  for a year on the one hundred and five year old schooner “Tabor Boy.”