KAREN KELTNER

Maestro Karen Keltner, Resident Conductor of San Diego Opera, regularly appears with her home company, most recently in 2012 as conductor for Camille Saint-Saëns’ grand opera, Samson and Delilah. As Resident Conductor of San Diego Opera, Keltner has presided over more than 35 productions for her home company, including Bizet’s Carmen and The Pearl Fishers, and the San Diego Opera premieres of Samson and Delilah, Alban Berg’s Wozzeck, Carlisle Floyd’s Of Mice and Men and Cold Sassy Tree, Tobias Picker’s Thérèse Raquin, Andre Previn’s A Streetcar Named Desire, Samuel Barber’s Vanessa and The Lighthouse by Peter Maxwell Davies. Other highlights have been Così fan tutte, Salome, The Flying Dutchman, and many bel canto favorites: The Barber of Seville, La Cenerentola, Don Pasquale, The Italian Girl in Algiers, and The Elixir of Love. During his lifetime, Keltner also collaborated with the well-known composer / stage director Gian Carlo Menotti in performances of Amahl and the Night Visitors, and The Medium and The Telephone.

Maestro Keltner has appeared as guest conductor with l’Opéra du Rhin in the cities of Strasbourg and Nancy in France, The Washington Opera at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC; Pittsburgh Opera, Glimmerglass Opera, The Opera Company of Philadelphia, Seattle Opera, New York City Opera, and the Vancouver and Winnepeg Operas in Canada. She has been a regular guest artist with Opera Carolina in Charlotte, NC, conducting among others, Tosca, Carmen, Salome, Cold Sassy Tree, and Verdi’s Aïda to inaugurate Charlotte’s new Opera House in 2002. Keltner also opened the 45^th season of the Lyric Opera of Kansas City with performances of La bohème. Other guest appearances have been with Austin Lyric Opera, Utah Opera, Chautauqua Opera (NY), Orlando Opera, Sacramento Opera, Nashville Opera, and the Opera Theatre of Weston (VT) where, among other productions, she premiered the Vermont performances of Rachel Portman’s The Little Prince, based on St. Exupéry’s beloved story of the same name.

Karen Keltner, a native Hoosier from South Bend, Indiana, now based in San Diego, holds multiple degrees in French from the University of Strasbourg in France and Indiana University. She earned her Doctorate from Indiana University’s School of Music where she also received her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in music. The conductor frequently gives master classes for singers and other students of opera in cities and universities where she guest conducts.

In San Diego she served on the Board of Directors for Rachel’s Women’s Center, a day center providing services and support for homeless women, and was honored by The Girls Scouts of America as one of its ten "Cool Women".

 
 
UFOMT PAST SEASONS |

2012	Conductor, My Fair Lady
	Conductor, Tosca
2011	Conductor, Oliver!
	Conductor, Boris Godunov
2010	Conductor, Guys & Dolls
	Conductor, La Traviata
2009	Conductor, The Mikado
	Conductor, Cavalleria Rusticana / Pagliacci
2008	Conductor, 1776
	Conductor, Aida
2007	Conductor, The Most Happy Fella
	Conductor, Il Trovatore
2006	Conductor, Man of La Mancha
	Conductor, La Bohème
2005	Conductor, Kismet
	Conductor, The Crucible
2004	Conductor, Brigadoon
	Conductor, Rigoletto
2003	Conductor, Fiddler on the Roof
	Conductor, Nabucco
2002	Conductor, The Sound of Music
	Conductor, The Desert Song
2001	Conductor, South Pacific
	Conductor, Susannah
2000	Conductor, The Mikado
1999	Conductor, Carousel
1998	Conductor, I Do! I Do!
1997	Conductor, Greenwillow