BIOGRAPHY

An internationally renowned bel canto specialist, Kenneth Tarver has performed at the Vienna State Opera, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Staatsoper Unter den Linden, Hamburg State Opera, Bavarian State Opera, Semperoper Dresden, as well as the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona, Metropolitan Opera in New York and both the Aix-en-Provence and Edinburgh festivals. His repertoire includes all major operatic roles of his fach by Mozart, Rossini, Donizetti, Gluck, Berlioz and Verdi, as well as concert roles by Bach, Handel, Beethoven, Debussy and Stravinsky.

Recent engagements include Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 with the SWR Symphony Orchestra under Jean-Christophe Spinosi, Vaughan Williams' Serenade to Music and Michael Tippett's A Child of Our Time with the London Philharmonic Orchestra under Edward Gardner. With the North Carolina Symphony Orchestra he performed Handel's Messiah, while with the Danish Chamber Orchestra under Adam Fischer he could be heard in Haydn's Orfeo ed Euridice. Kenneth Tarver also made his debut as soloist in Orff's Carmina Burana under the baton of Claudio Vandelli with the Würth Philharmonic in Künzelsau, Baden-Württemberg, while at the Central City Opera in Denver he made his role debut as Otello in Rossini's Dramma per musica of the same name.

Major highlights of his international career to date have included Don Giovanni under Claudio Abbado and Daniel Harding in Aix-en-Provence, Così fan tutte directed by Mario Martone at the Teatro San Carlo in Naples and Covent Garden, Die Entführung aus dem Serail under Sir Colin Davis and the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, and Gluck's Orphée et Eurydice with Marc Minkowski and Les Musiciens du Louvre. Under Gianluigi Gelmetti, Kenneth Tarver sang Rodrigo in Rossini's Otello and made a guest appearance as Almaviva in Il Barbiere di Siviglia at the Metropolitan Opera under the baton of Maurizio Benini. His participation in Shostakovich's The Nose led to a collaboration with Mstislav Rostropovich and the London Symphony Orchestra, while his role as Fenton in Verdi's Falstaff took him to the Bavarian State Opera under the baton of Zubin Mehta.

Further key points in his career were Rossini's La Donna del Lago at the Edinburgh Festival and Mozart's Don Giovanni under the baton of René Jacobs in Brussels, Cologne and Paris. In demand notably as a Rossini interpreter, Kenneth Tarver has appeared as Lindoro in L'Italiana in Algeri at Palm Beach Opera, as Conte Almaviva in Il Barbiere di Siviglia at the Bavarian State Opera, Dresden's Semperoper and Opera Australia in Sydney, as Narciso in Il Turco in Italia in Lausanne, and in Otello in New York and Washington. Other engagements include Haydn's Orlando Paladino at the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, the title role in Daniel Auber's Fra' Diavolo in Paris and Liège, Idomeneo on tour in Europe with René Jacobs, and as Tamino in a new production of Mozart's Die Zauberflöte at Opera Vlaanderen. At the Vienna Musikverein he appeared in Haydn's L'Infedeltà delusa, while at the Théâtre du Capitôle in Toulouse he sang the title role in Handel's Belshazzar, which he performed most recently with the NDR Vokalensemble and Concerto Köln under Václav Luks.

Kenneth Tarver has worked alongside conductors such as Ivor Bolton, Riccardo Chailly, Daniel Harding, Zubin Mehta, Marc Minkowski, Kent Nagano and Michael Tilson Thomas, among others, and has appeared as a sought-after concert soloist with leading international orchestras including the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Gewandhaus Orchestra Leipzig, London Symphony Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra and Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

The tenor has appeared on numerous recordings with labels including Deutsche Grammphon and Decca, featuring works by Berlioz with Sir Colin Davis and the London Symphony Orchestra (Les Troyens, Béatrice et Bénédicte, Roméo et Juliette) and with Pierre Boulez and the Cleveland Orchestra (Les nuits d'éte, Roméo et Juliette). Additional recordings have included Il viaggio a Reims under Jesús López Cobos and Verdi's Falstaff under Bernard Haitink, as well as the double Grammy-winning disc of Berlioz's Les Troyens (Best Opera Recording | Best Classical Recording). He can be heard in two recordings as Don Ottavio in Mozart's Don Giovanni: under René Jacobs for Harmonia Mundi and under Teodor Currentzis for Sony. As part of the Mozart - Da Ponte cycle of Musica Aeterna released by Sony, Kenneth Tarver can also be heard as Ferrando in Così fan tutte.

2023 | 2024 

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DISCOGRAPHY

Album Cover

Gioachino Rossini: Sigismondo
Kenneth Tarver, Hera Hyesang Park, Marianna Pizzolato, Rachel Kelly
Chor des Bayerischen Rundfunks | Münchner Rundfunkorchester
Conductor: Keri-Lynn Wilson
Label: BR-Klassik | 2019

More on www.br-shop.de

Album Cover

George Frideric Handel: Judas Maccabaeus
Deanna Breiwick, Sophie Harmsen, Owen Willetts, Kenneth Tarver, Joao Fernandes
NDR Chor & Festspiel Orchester Göttingen
Conductor: Laurence Cummings
Label: Accent | 2019

More on www.prestomusic.com

Album Cover

Gioachino Rossini: Eduardo e Cristina
Kenneth Tarver, Siliva Donna Benetta, Laura Polverelli, Baurzhan Anderzhanov, Xiang Xu
Virtuosi Brunensis | Camerata Bach Choir
Conductor: Gianluigi Gelmetti
Label: Naxos | 2019

More on www.naxos.de

Album Cover

Gioachino Rossini: Petite Messe solennelle
Eleonora Buratto, Sara Mingardo, Kenneth Tarver, Luca Pisaroni
Orchestre Philharmonique de Luxembourg
Wiener Singakademie
Conductor: Gustavo Gimeno
Label: Pentatone | 2019

More on www.pentatonemusic.com

VIDEOS

 

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IN FOCUS

LENA BELKINA und KENNETH TARVER | Saisoneröffnung des SWR Symphonieorchesters
15Sep2022
LENA BELKINA und KENNETH TARVER | Saisoneröffnung des SWR Symphonieorchesters

Lena Belkina and Kenneth Tarver open the new season of the SWR Symphony Orchestra Stuttgart with Beethoven's 9th Symphony conducted by Jean-Christophe Spinosi.

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KENNETH TARVER in Seattle
09Nov2017
KENNETH TARVER in Seattle

The American tenor will perform no less than three times as Featured Artist with the Seattle Symphony Orchestra

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