Keith Bernard Stonum studied singing at the Shepherd School of Music in his home town of Houston, Texas. While still a student, he sang Don Ottavio under the musical direction of Bruno Weil at the Junge Oper Schloss Weikersheim and Emperor Otto in Adelasia ed Aleramo (Johann Simon Mayr) at the Prinzregententheater in Munich under the direction of Andreas Spering. From 2014 to 2016, he was a member of the International Opera Studio at Cologne Opera, where he gained further stage experience in productions such as The Rape of Lucretia and My Fair Lady. He then made guest appearances at theaters such as Theater Aachen, Oper Frankfurt, Staatstheater Wiesbaden, Staatstheater Darmstadt, Opéra de Toulon and Prinzregententheater Munich, where he specialized in interdisciplinary works and collaborations with contemporary composers. These works include the world premieres of Prinzessin im Eis (Anno Schreier), Frankfurter Rendezvous (Schorsch Kamerun) and Schönerland (Søren Nils Eichberg). Under Teodor Currentzis he sang Hans Zender’s Winterreise at the Athens Festival. 2021-2023 he was a member of the Xchange department of the Hanover State Opera, where he developed various participatory formats such as a music theater improvisation group for amateurs, as well as gaining his first experience as a dramaturge (Lucia Ronchetti, Pinocchio’s Adventures). Since the 2023/24 season, he has co-directed JOiN, the Young Opera in the North of the Stuttgart State Opera, with Martin Mutschler and is Deputy Director of the International Opera Studio. In the current season, he can be seen on stage in the staged concert Gnadenlos Atemlos.
At Ballhaus Naunynstrasse, Keith Bernard Stonum was part of Ganz Vorn (2023), a meeting of Black people in leadership positions.