Karen Keltner, Conductor

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KAREN KELTNER: BIOGRAPHY

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Resident Conductor, San Diego Opera
Principal Conductor, Anchorage Opera
Guest Conductor, Utah Festival Opera

Maestro Karen Keltner, Resident Conductor of 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 will again conduct 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).

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.