Karen Keltner: conducting the music of The Conquistador, an opera in the grand tradition by Myron Fink

Photo credit: © Ken Howard, courtesy of San Diego Opera

KAREN KELTNER conducted the music at the world premiere of The Conquistador. She considers The Conquistador a high point of her career because it enabled her to become a co-creator of the music. Wielding the baton, she and the orchestra indeed gave the music life in time and space - for the world to hear in its resounding fullness for the very first time. Nothing could have thrilled the composer more.

The maestro, who belongs to the still rare breed of women conductors, began her career at San Diego Opera in 1980 as the only woman participant in San Diego Opera's Young American Opera Conductors program. Today she is the company's Resident Conductor and Music Administrator

Until 1993 she conducted exclusively for San Diego Opera where she gained a reputation for her wonderful reading of the bel canto repertory. Of Karen and bel canto, SDO General Director Ian Campbell has this to say: "Her light touch with the orchestra and sense of vocal line add greatly to the music and overall production. Karen fills this style of music with all the necessary energy and sparkle." She has since been making conducting debuts in opera houses across the United States in tandem with her growing repertory and reputation.

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The Making of the Opera How it began The Libretto Donald Moreland Myron Fink Myron's Works The Music Karen Keltner Cast Creating the Role The Staging Set / Costumes

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