Download Resident Conductor, San Diego Opera Principal

KAREN KELTNER
Resident Conductor, San Diego Opera
Principal Conductor, Anchorage Opera
Guest Conductor, Utah Festival Opera
BIOGRAPHY
Maestro Karen Keltner, Resident Conductor of the San Diego Opera has conducted
many highly acclaimed productions. In recent seasons these have included works by
today’s eminent American composers: Andre Previn’s A STREETCAR NAMED
DESIRE, based on the Tennessee Williams play of the same name and Carlisle
Floyd’s OF MICE AND MEN and COLD SASSY TREE which she again conducts at
Opera Carolina in February 2003. In March 2003, she conducts the West Coast
premiere of an opera by another American composer - THÉRÈSE RAQUIN by Tobias
Picker.
In the year 2000, Mo. Keltner conducted the San Diego premiere of A STREETCAR
NAMED DESIRE, a stunning success that led to her European debut in December
2001 conducting four performances of STREETCAR at L'Opera National du Rhin in
Strasbourg, France and on tour in Mulhouse La Filature. In 1999 she conducted OF
MICE AND MEN in San Diego, which she also conducted earlier that season for Utah
Opera. A new production of the opera was the vehicle for her conducting debut with
the Washington Opera in October 2001. Having worked closely with composer
Carlisle Floyd on numerous occasions, including the San Diego Opera production of
COLD SASSY TREE in March 2001, she is now considered an expert on the Floyd
repertoire.
Mo. Keltner has also conducted many acclaimed productions in the standard
repertoire. In 2002, she opened her 20th anniversary season with the San Diego
Opera with Verdi’s RIGOLETTO, closing in May 2002 with Wagner's THE FLYING
DUTCHMAN. Fall 1999 found Keltner opening the 25th Anniversary Season for
Syracuse Opera, guest-conducting a much-lauded AIDA for that company.
She opened the 1998 San Diego Opera season with THE BARBER OF SEVILLE and
followed by a production of SALOME by Richard Strauss, which marked a return of
the opera to San Diego after an absence of thirty years. In the fall of 1998 Keltner
opened the 50th Anniversary Season of Opera Carolina with Verdi’s AIDA and made
her debut with the Manitoba Opera in Winnipeg Canada leading MADAMA
BUTTERFLY.
In 1997 she conducted the San Diego Opera productions of L’ITALIANA IN ALGERI
and the world premiere of Myron Fink’s THE CONQUISTADOR, featuring Jerry
Hadley. The 1996-7 season also included a return appearance at Pittsburgh Opera
(LUCIA DI LAMERMOOR and IL BARBIERE DI SIVIGLIA) and debut
performances for Cincinnati Opera (MADAMA BUTTERFLY) and Opera/Columbus
(LA CENERENTOLA).
Karen Keltner, Conductor: Biography (cont’d)
Keltner has also conducted productions for The New York City Opera (LA BOHÈME),
Glimmerglass Opera (YEOMEN OF THE GUARD), The Opera Company of
Philadelphia (SALOME), Utah Opera (LA BELLE HELENE, ABDUCTION, MICE AND
MEN), Seattle Opera (HANSEL), Sacramento Opera, Orlando Opera, Nashville
Opera, and Chautauqua Opera. She appears regularly with Opera Carolina where she
has conducted IL BARBIERE DI SIVIGLIA, LA TRAVIATA, CARMEN, TOSCA,
AIDA, and in 1995 her first SALOME at the Utah Festival Opera Company. As
Principal Conductor of Anchorage (Alaska) Opera, she has led performances of IL
BARBIERE, DON GIOVANNI, DIE ZAUBERFLOTE, LA SONNAMBULA,
RIGOLETTO, and LUCIA DI LAMERMOOR. She was guest conductor at the
University of Southern California for THE RAPE OF LUCRETIA, and joined the
Eastman School of Music to conduct the Virgil Thompson/Gertrude Stein opera, THE
MOTHER OF US ALL in performances commemorating the 75th anniversary of the
19th amendment, which granted women in the United States the right to vote.
Mo. Keltner’s early productions with the San Diego Opera include the widely
acclaimed 1993 San Diego premiere of Bizet's LES PECHEURS DE PERLES and
stagings of Rossini’s IL BARBIERE DI SIVIGLIA and LA CENERENTOLA, FAUST
by Charles Gounod, Donizetti's DON PASQUALE and L’ELISIR d’AMORE, and
Prokofiev's L'AMOUR DES TROIS ORANGES, as well as Peter Maxwell Davies' THE
LIGHTHOUSE, among others. She also served as conductor with the
composer/director Gian-Carlo Menotti in performances of THE MEDIUM, THE
TELEPHONE and AMAHL AND THE NIGHT VISITORS.
Karen Keltner is a graduate of Indiana University, earning a bachelor’s degree in
French from that institution as well as the Diplome superieur d’etudes francaises
from the University of Strasbourg, France. She holds a D.Mus. (Doctorate) from the
famed Indiana University School of Music and a bachelor’s and master’s degree in
music from that institution as well. She was an instructor in the French department
at Indiana University and taught French diction for singers at the School of Music as
well as conducting multiple ensembles. From 1976 to 1980 Keltner was assistant
professor of music at the University of Central Florida.
She designed and received the first apprenticeship in conducting from the National
Opera Institute in Washington, DC, and is a member of Opera America, the American
Symphony Orchestra League, and the Conductor’s Guild. She also serves on the
board of directors of Rachel’s Center for Women in San Diego.
Photo: © Ken Howard
website: http://www.karenkeltner.com
Management: Pinnacle Arts Management 889 Ninth Ave., Suite 1 New York, N.Y. 10019 USA
Tel: (212) 397-7915 Fax: (212) 397-7920
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