Carl Tanner
Encyclopedia
Carl Tanner is an American
opera
tic tenor
.
, Willie Nelson
, and Roy Clark
. He began taking violin lessons at the age of 13 and, although he never took the instrument seriously, Tanner claims that this was the start of his love for classical music. A neighbor convinced him to try out for the high school chorus after hearing him sing in the shower, and after a year of singing as soloist for the chorus he auditioned for The Madrigals.
After graduating high school, Tanner attended the Shenandoah Conservatory of Music at Shenandoah University
in Winchester, Virginia
where in 1985 he earned a Bachelor's degree. Upon his return to Arlington he enrolled in the Northern Virginia Trucking Academy and spent the next several years as a big rig truck driver. To earn extra money he moonlighted as a modern-day bounty hunter
for Arlington-area bail bondsmen.
A turning point for Tanner came one day while he was inching his way along Interstate 95 in the cab of his 18-wheeler, singing the Giacomo Puccini
aria
"E lucevan le stelle" from Act III of Tosca
to pass the time, when a woman in a convertible in the next lane called up to him: "Is that you, or is that the radio?" "That's me, lady," Tanner replied. "Well then, you've missed your calling," the woman declared. "You should be singing for a living, not driving."
Soon thereafter Tanner decided to embark upon a musical career. With the support of his employer, he moved to New York City
in 1990 and, in late 1991 while working as a singing waiter in the restaurant Bianchi and Margarita's, he was heard by Richard Gaddes
, the head of the Santa Fe Opera
, who arranged for him to join the Apprentice Program for Singers for 1992 (and then 1993) to obtain more training. His most recent work was the role of Otello in Palm Beach Opera's Otello.
One of Tanner's first breaks came from the Opera Theatre of Northern Virginia, which signed him in 1994 to sing the title role in the rarely performed Edgar
by Puccini. Tanner has since starred in a variety of leading roles in major opera houses, including Pagliacci
in La Monnaie
, Brussels, "Cavaradossi" in the Minnesota Orchestra production of Tosca
, and Radames (alongside soprano
Angela Brown
) in Opera Pacific
's Aida
.
After performances with the Washington National Opera
in their 2004-2005 season productions of Samson and Delilah
and Il Trovatore
, he returned to Santa Fe to sing "Calaf" in Turandot
during the company's 2005 summer season. Tanner has also sung Calaf at many major opera houses in Germany plus, in 2006, he sang the role at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino
under the direction of Zubin Mehta
and toured with that festival organization to Japan for several more performances.
On the concert stage Tanner has performed as soloist with many symphony orchestras including the St. Louis and Atlanta Symphonies, and the Roanoke and West Virginia Symphony orchestras in Verdi's Requiem
. Perhaps most notably, he sang "O Holy Night
" at the Christmas Tree lighting ceremony at the White House
in 2004. He has recorded Puccini's Edgar (title role) and the role of Menalaeus in Richard Strauss
' Die ägyptische Helena
with Deborah Voigt. In November of 2006 Tanner released a CD of Christmas songs entitled Hear the Angel Voices.
He was inducted as a National Patron of Delta Omicron
, an international professional music fraternity on August 8, 2005.
Tanner received an Honorary Doctorate in Music from his alma mater, Shenandoah University
in 2009.
, the alma mater of actors Forrest Tucker
, Gena Rowlands
, Shirley MacLaine
, Warren Beatty
, Pat Priest, and Sandra Bullock
.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
opera
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
tic tenor
Tenor
The tenor is a type of male singing voice and is the highest male voice within the modal register. The typical tenor voice lies between C3, the C one octave below middle C, to the A above middle C in choral music, and up to high C in solo work. The low extreme for tenors is roughly B2...
.
Biography and career
Born into "very modest means," Carl Tanner's earliest exposure to music was in the form of country icons such as John DenverJohn Denver
Henry John Deutschendorf, Jr. , known professionally as John Denver, was an American singer/songwriter, activist, and humanitarian. After growing up in numerous locations with his military family, Denver began his music career in folk music groups in the late 1960s. His greatest commercial success...
, Willie Nelson
Willie Nelson
Willie Hugh Nelson is an American country music singer-songwriter, as well as an author, poet, actor, and activist. The critical success of the album Shotgun Willie , combined with the critical and commercial success of Red Headed Stranger and Stardust , made Nelson one of the most recognized...
, and Roy Clark
Roy Clark
Roy Linwood Clark is an American country music musician and performer. He is best known for hosting Hee Haw, a nationally televised country variety show, from 1969–1992. Clark has been an important and influential figure in country music, both as a performer and helping to popularize the genre...
. He began taking violin lessons at the age of 13 and, although he never took the instrument seriously, Tanner claims that this was the start of his love for classical music. A neighbor convinced him to try out for the high school chorus after hearing him sing in the shower, and after a year of singing as soloist for the chorus he auditioned for The Madrigals.
After graduating high school, Tanner attended the Shenandoah Conservatory of Music at Shenandoah University
Shenandoah University
Shenandoah University is a comprehensive private university located in Winchester, Virginia in the United States. It has an enrollment of approximately 3,800 students across more than ninety programs in six schools: College of Arts & Sciences, Harry F. Byrd, Jr. School of Business, Shenandoah...
in Winchester, Virginia
Winchester, Virginia
Winchester is an independent city located in the northwestern portion of the Commonwealth of Virginia in the USA. The city's population was 26,203 according to the 2010 Census...
where in 1985 he earned a Bachelor's degree. Upon his return to Arlington he enrolled in the Northern Virginia Trucking Academy and spent the next several years as a big rig truck driver. To earn extra money he moonlighted as a modern-day bounty hunter
Bounty hunter
A bounty hunter captures fugitives for a monetary reward . Other names, mainly used in the United States, include bail enforcement agent and fugitive recovery agent.-Laws in the U.S.:...
for Arlington-area bail bondsmen.
A turning point for Tanner came one day while he was inching his way along Interstate 95 in the cab of his 18-wheeler, singing the Giacomo Puccini
Giacomo Puccini
Giacomo Antonio Domenico Michele Secondo Maria Puccini was an Italian composer whose operas, including La bohème, Tosca, Madama Butterfly, and Turandot, are among the most frequently performed in the standard repertoire...
aria
Aria
An aria in music was originally any expressive melody, usually, but not always, performed by a singer. The term is now used almost exclusively to describe a self-contained piece for one voice usually with orchestral accompaniment...
"E lucevan le stelle" from Act III of Tosca
Tosca
Tosca is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa. It premiered at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome on 14 January 1900...
to pass the time, when a woman in a convertible in the next lane called up to him: "Is that you, or is that the radio?" "That's me, lady," Tanner replied. "Well then, you've missed your calling," the woman declared. "You should be singing for a living, not driving."
Soon thereafter Tanner decided to embark upon a musical career. With the support of his employer, he moved to New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
in 1990 and, in late 1991 while working as a singing waiter in the restaurant Bianchi and Margarita's, he was heard by Richard Gaddes
Richard Gaddes
Richard Gaddes is an English-born opera company administrator based in the United States.-Career in England:Gaddes was born in Wallsend, England. He studied at Trinity College of Music in London. At Wigmore Hall, London’s famed recital hall, he created a series of lunchtime concerts designed to...
, the head of the Santa Fe Opera
Santa Fe Opera
The Santa Fe Opera is an American opera company, located north of Santa Fe in the U.S. state of New Mexico, headquartered on a former guest ranch of .-General history:...
, who arranged for him to join the Apprentice Program for Singers for 1992 (and then 1993) to obtain more training. His most recent work was the role of Otello in Palm Beach Opera's Otello.
One of Tanner's first breaks came from the Opera Theatre of Northern Virginia, which signed him in 1994 to sing the title role in the rarely performed Edgar
Edgar
Edgar is a common name from Old English words ead + gar . Literally meaning "prosperity-spear" or "prosperous spearman." It may refer to:-Historical:...
by Puccini. Tanner has since starred in a variety of leading roles in major opera houses, including Pagliacci
Pagliacci
Pagliacci , sometimes incorrectly rendered with a definite article as I Pagliacci, is an opera consisting of a prologue and two acts written and composed by Ruggero Leoncavallo. It recounts the tragedy of a jealous husband in a commedia dell'arte troupe...
in La Monnaie
La Monnaie
Le Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie , or the Koninklijke Muntschouwburg is a theatre in Brussels, Belgium....
, Brussels, "Cavaradossi" in the Minnesota Orchestra production of Tosca
Tosca
Tosca is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa. It premiered at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome on 14 January 1900...
, and Radames (alongside soprano
Soprano
A soprano is a voice type with a vocal range from approximately middle C to "high A" in choral music, or to "soprano C" or higher in operatic music. In four-part chorale style harmony, the soprano takes the highest part, which usually encompasses the melody...
Angela Brown
Angela Brown
Angela M. Brown is an African-American dramatic soprano particularly admired for her portrayal of Verdi heroines.-Early life and education:...
) in Opera Pacific
Opera Pacific
Opera Pacific was an opera company located in the Orange County, California, United States city of Santa Ana. It operated for 22 seasons before closing in 2008 after several seasons of deepening financial difficulties.-History:...
's Aida
Aida
Aida sometimes spelled Aïda, is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Antonio Ghislanzoni, based on a scenario written by French Egyptologist Auguste Mariette...
.
After performances with the Washington National Opera
Washington National Opera
The Washington National Opera is an opera company in Washington, D.C., USA. Formerly the Opera Society of Washington and the Washington Opera, the company received Congressional designation as the National Opera Company in 2000. Performances are now given in the Opera House of the John F...
in their 2004-2005 season productions of Samson and Delilah
Samson and Delilah (opera)
Samson and Delilah , Op. 47, is a grand opera in three acts and four scenes by Camille Saint-Saëns to a French libretto by Ferdinand Lemaire...
and Il Trovatore
Il trovatore
Il trovatore is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Salvadore Cammarano, based on the play El Trovador by Antonio García Gutiérrez. Cammarano died in mid-1852 before completing the libretto...
, he returned to Santa Fe to sing "Calaf" in Turandot
Turandot
Turandot is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini, set to a libretto in Italian by Giuseppe Adami and Renato Simoni.Though Puccini's first interest in the subject was based on his reading of Friedrich Schiller's adaptation of the play, his work is most nearly based on the earlier text Turandot...
during the company's 2005 summer season. Tanner has also sung Calaf at many major opera houses in Germany plus, in 2006, he sang the role at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino
Maggio Musicale Fiorentino
Maggio Musicale Fiorentino is an annual opera festival which was founded in April 1933 by conductor Vittorio Gui with the aim of presenting contemporary and forgotten operas in visually dramatic productions. It was the first music festival in Italy. The first opera presented was Verdi's early...
under the direction of Zubin Mehta
Zubin Mehta
Zubin Mehta is an Indian conductor of western classical music. He is the Music Director for Life of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra.-Biography:...
and toured with that festival organization to Japan for several more performances.
On the concert stage Tanner has performed as soloist with many symphony orchestras including the St. Louis and Atlanta Symphonies, and the Roanoke and West Virginia Symphony orchestras in Verdi's Requiem
Requiem (Verdi)
The Messa da Requiem by Giuseppe Verdi is a musical setting of the Roman Catholic funeral mass for four soloists, double choir and orchestra. It was composed in memory of Alessandro Manzoni, an Italian poet and novelist much admired by Verdi. The first performance in San Marco in Milan on 22 May...
. Perhaps most notably, he sang "O Holy Night
O Holy Night
"O Holy Night" is a well-known Christmas carol composed by Adolphe Adam in 1847 to the French poem "Minuit, chrétiens" by Placide Cappeau , a wine merchant and poet, who had been asked by a parish priest to write a Christmas poem...
" at the Christmas Tree lighting ceremony at the White House
White House
The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...
in 2004. He has recorded Puccini's Edgar (title role) and the role of Menalaeus in Richard Strauss
Richard Strauss
Richard Georg Strauss was a leading German composer of the late Romantic and early modern eras. He is known for his operas, which include Der Rosenkavalier and Salome; his Lieder, especially his Four Last Songs; and his tone poems and orchestral works, such as Death and Transfiguration, Till...
' Die ägyptische Helena
Die ägyptische Helena
Die ägyptische Helena is an opera in two acts by Richard Strauss to a German libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal. It premiered at the Dresden Semperoper on June 6, 1928...
with Deborah Voigt. In November of 2006 Tanner released a CD of Christmas songs entitled Hear the Angel Voices.
He was inducted as a National Patron of Delta Omicron
Delta Omicron
Delta Omicron is a co-ed international professional music honors fraternity whose mission is to promote and support excellence in music and musicianship.-History:...
, an international professional music fraternity on August 8, 2005.
Tanner received an Honorary Doctorate in Music from his alma mater, Shenandoah University
Shenandoah University
Shenandoah University is a comprehensive private university located in Winchester, Virginia in the United States. It has an enrollment of approximately 3,800 students across more than ninety programs in six schools: College of Arts & Sciences, Harry F. Byrd, Jr. School of Business, Shenandoah...
in 2009.
Education
Tanner is an alumnus of Washington-Lee High SchoolWashington-Lee High School
Washington-Lee High School is one of three traditional public high schools in the Arlington Public Schools district in Arlington, Virginia, covering grades 9-12. As of 2009-2010, the school had over 1,800 students and 120 teachers...
, the alma mater of actors Forrest Tucker
Forrest Tucker
Forrest Tucker was an American actor in both movies and television from the 1940s to the 1980s. Tucker, who stood 190 cm tall and weighed 93 kg , appeared in nearly 100 action films in the 1940s and 1950s.-Early life:Forrest Meredith Tucker was born in Plainfield, Indiana, a son of...
, Gena Rowlands
Gena Rowlands
Gena Rowlands is an American actress of film, stage and television. The four-time Emmy and two-time Golden Globe winner is best known for her collaborations with her actor-director husband John Cassavetes in ten films, in two of which, Gloria and A Woman Under the Influence, she gave Academy...
, Shirley MacLaine
Shirley MacLaine
Shirley MacLaine is an American film and theater actress, singer, dancer, activist and author, well-known for her beliefs in new age spirituality and reincarnation. She has written a large number of autobiographical works, many dealing with her spiritual beliefs as well as her Hollywood career...
, Warren Beatty
Warren Beatty
Warren Beatty born March 30, 1937) is an American actor, producer, screenwriter and director. He has received a total of fourteen Academy Award nominations, winning one for Best Director in 1982. He has also won four Golden Globe Awards including the Cecil B. DeMille Award.-Early life and...
, Pat Priest, and Sandra Bullock
Sandra Bullock
Sandra Annette Bullock is an Academy Award winning American actress and producer who rose to fame in the 1990s after roles in successful films such as Demolition Man, Speed, The Net, A Time to Kill, and While You Were Sleeping. She continued with films such as Miss Congeniality, The Lake House,...
.