SANTA MONICA, Calif. — Opera singer Jubilant Sykes was fatally stabbed at his California home on Monday, and his son was arrested after the attack, police said. The Grammy Award nominee was 71.
According to a news release from the Santa Monica Police Department, police responded to Sykes’ residence at about 9:20 PT.
Lt. Lewis Gilmour, a spokesperson for the Santa Monica Police Department, said that Sykes’ wife, Cecelia Sykes, had called 911 on Monday to report an assault at their home.
Officers arriving at the scene discovered Sykes “with critical injuries consistent with a stabbing.” He was pronounced dead at the scene.
Sykes was not publicly identified as the victim until Tuesday,
Micah Sykes, the singer’s 31-year-old son, was found inside the home and was taken into custody without incident, police said.
Singer Jubilant Sykes Stabbed to Death, Son in Custody https://t.co/vhNKcwBgFx
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It was unclear what led to the incident, which police labeled as “isolated.”
Jubilant Sykes performed as the Celebrant in the 2009 Grammy Award-nominated recording of Leonard Bernstein’s “Mass" with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra.
He also sang at Carnegie Hall, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington and the Barbican Center in London. In 1990, he performed the role of Jake in a production of “Porgy and Bess” at the Metropolitan Opera.
According to his website, Sykes also sang jazz and spiritual music. He performed with the Atlanta Symphony, the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the New York Philharmonic.
The Los Angeles native began singing soprano as a child.
“Initially, I had no dreams of becoming an opera singer,” he told California State Fullerton’s CSUF News in 2019. “But that changed when I was at Cal State Fullerton. I had teachers who poured their lives into me. I had everything I needed right on campus to prepare me for my career.”
Sykes’ management company, ACM 360 Artists, said in a statement on Tuesday that Sykes would be “greatly missed.”
“Jubilant’s remarkable artistry touched millions, and his voice was rightly described as ‘art at its highest expression,’” the company said.
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