Kenan Oktay is an emerging classical crossover tenor currently pursuing his M.M. in Voice at the Longy School of Music. He graduated summa cum laude from Tufts University in 2025 with a major in International Relations and a minor in French.

He began his singing journey in 2022 as a member of the Tufts Amalgamates a cappella group and began formal vocal study in 2023 under Bülent Güneralp. He joined the Tufts Opera Ensemble that fall, performing Tamino in Die Zauberflöte (Mozart), Donkey in Shrek the Musical (Tesori), Alidoro in La Cenerentola (Rossini), and appearing in the ensemble of Sunday in the Park with George (Sondheim). He also starred as Troy Bolton in High School Musical with Tufts’ student-run theatre company Torn Ticket II and sang the title role in a Tufts Wind Ensemble scene performance of Candide (Bernstein).

During his studies abroad in 2024, he performed in France at Sorbonne Nouvelle University’s cabaret production Sorbouche Nouvelle. He also sang at the Lanzarote Opera Festival and Academy in Spain, where he performed opera, oratorio, art song, and musical theatre repertoire by Handel, Mozart, Verdi, Tchaikovsky, Fauré, and Bernstein.

After returning to the United States, and at the encouragement of Bülent Güneralp, he began developing his own voice studio.

In fall 2024, he returned to the Tufts Opera Ensemble scenes program as Nemorino in L’elisir d’amore (Donizetti) and Don Ramiro in La Cenerentola, and performed in the ensembles of Die Zauberflöte and Little Shop of Horrors (Menken). In his final semester, he served as tenor choral scholar and section leader in the Tufts University Chaplaincy Choir and performed the triple roles of King of the East, Moon, and a chorus role in the Opera Ensemble’s fully staged production of The Enchanted Pig (Dove). He concluded his undergraduate studies with a graduation recital alongside pianist Thomas Stumpf.

His vocal journey was spotlighted on KLCC, NPR’s Oregon member station. He was appointed the first-ever Associate Teacher in the Bülent Güneralp Voice Studio.

In fall 2025 at Longy, he began studying with Anne Azéma, and performed in the Longy scenes program as Sam in Street Scene (Weill) and Paolino in Il matrimonio segreto (Cimarosa). For the spring 2026 season he was cast as tenor chorus soloist and cover for the Gran Sacerdote in Longy’s production of Idomeneo (Mozart), and as James Wilson in 1776 (Sherman Edwards) with the Greater Worcester Opera. He will give a recital, “Kenan Oktay and Friends”, this May in the Boston Turkish Festival.