Quinn Kelsey

Vocalists — Baritone

Manager: Michael Benchetrit
Management Territory: Worldwide

As Schaunard in La Boheme with the Metropolitan Opera, March 2008: “Rodolfo's Bohemian buddies formed a likable group. They were into the spirit of the opera. […] And Quinn Kelsey had a wonderful Met debut as Schaunard. This American baritone not only sings accurately, he sings with real flavor.” —Jay Nordlinger, The New York Sun, March 31, 2008

In a Solo Recital in Washington, DC, March 2007: "Quinn Kelsey has a fine, full and fluid baritone voice, but it was his sheer musicianship that made his Monday night recital at the Kennedy Center Terrace Theater so exciting. The distinction is important. There are artists who win us over with the honeyed beauty of their sound -- one thinks immediately of soprano Montserrat Caballe and tenor Luciano Pavarotti (both of them, alas, now retired). Other musicians, just as satisfying in their way, are compelled to do more with less. Kelsey's voice is large, healthy, versatile and attractive but, in truth, there are many others out there that are equally sumptuous. What makes him special -- and very special indeed -- is the way he moves into whatever material he sings and inhabits it entirely. William Butler Yeats once mused poetically on knowing the dancer from the dance; it is similarly difficult to separate Kelsey from the music he sings. He sets a mood immediately -- whether the loopy, comical world of Polyphemus the giant in Handel's "Acis and Galatea" (the aria, here described as "I Rage, I Melt, I Burn," is much better known as "O Ruddier Than the Cherry") or the bleakest despair of the Mussorgsky "Songs and Dances of Death." He is always believable -- indeed, he seems to be living through whatever he is singing about before our eyes and ears. Gerald Finzi (1901-1956) was not a great composer, but he was an unmistakable one: The three settings of Shakespeare that Kelsey sang, with their tart, tidy dissonances, could have been written by no other artist. A set of three songs by Johannes Brahms and Gustav Mahler's cycle "Songs of a Wayfarer" all come out of mid-19th century, middle-European folk traditions, but Kelsey imbued the Mahler works with just the additional trace of fin de siecle neuroticism that they demand. And it would be hard to imagine a more harrowing reading of the ghostly, ghastly Mussorgsky songs. The concert was presented by the Vocal Arts Society, in tandem with the Marilyn Horne Foundation, which supports young and developing artists. And there were two of them to support on Monday. Because Kelsey's usual pianist, Craig Rutenberg, was forced to bow out because of a broken wrist, his place was taken by Tamara Sanikidze, a doctoral student in music at the University of Maryland. Under the circumstances, she did an amazing job, especially in the Mahler and Mussorgsky pieces, where her work with Kelsey seemed all but unanimous in intent and execution." —Tim Page, Washington Post, March 21, 2007

At the Marilyn Horne Foundation concert "The Song Continues: A Feast of Folksongs" at Zankel Hall, New York: The most memorable moments of the recital belonged to baritone Quinn Kelsey. In everything he sang - Ravel's "Cinq chansons populaires grecques" (sung in Greek, not French), two Hawaiian songs, even in "Drink to Me Only With Thine Eyes," Mr. Kelsey's ravishing baritone caressed the air, its considerable beauty anchored by fully felt emotions. Lieder singers must be storytellers, and Mr. Kelsey used timing and enunciation to make whatever he sang absorbing. —Patrick Giles, New York Sun, January 31, 2005

About

Hawaiian Baritone Quinn Kelsey, who represented the USA at the 2005 BBC Singer of the World Competition in Cardiff, recently finished a three-year stay at Chicago’s Lyric Opera Center for American Artists. Mr. Kelsey is now in demand in houses such as the Metropolitan and San Francisco Operas, the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino and the Bregenz Festival.

Quinn Kelsey’s current season begins with his role debut as Count di Luna in Il Trovatore with the San Francisco Opera, followed by The Cunning Little Vixen with Seiji Ozawa at the Teatro Comunale . . . in Florence and his New York City Opera debut as Sharpless in Madama Butterfly. In the summer, he will return to the Bregenz Festival for Amonasro in Aida. Mr. Kelsey will also be heard in recital in Honolulu. Future projects include debuts at the Canadian Opera Company, the Norwegian Opera and returns to the San Francisco Opera, the Lyric Opera of Chicago and the Metropolitan Opera.

Quinn Kelsey’s recent projects included the baritone’s debut at the San Francisco Opera as Marcello in La Bohème and two role debuts: Germont in La Traviata with Opera Memphis and Valentin in Faust with Opera Grand Rapids. In the summer Mr. Kelsey made his European debut as Amonasro in Aida with the Bregenz Festival. In concert, the Hawaiian baritone was heard in works by Leonard Bernstein and as the Baritone Soloist in Mahler’s 8th Symphony with Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony, which was just released commercially. Quinn Kelsey was also the Baritone Soloist in Beethoven’s 9th Symphony and in Orff’s Carmina Burana with the Honolulu Symphony, as well as the Baritone Soloist in Mahler’s 8th Symphony with the Milwaukee Symphony and he returned to San Francisco in a solo recital, as part of the celebrated Schwabacher Debut Series.

Last season Mr. Kelsey returned to the Lyric Opera of Chicago to sing Marcello in La Bohème and the Messenger Spirit in Die Frau ohne Schatten. He had a very successful debut at the Metropolitan Opera as Schaunard in La Bohème followed by his first Enrico in Lucia di Lammermoor with Madison Opera. Quinn Kelsey appeared in concert with the Grant Park Music Festival as the Bass Soloist in Szymanowski’s Stabat Mater. Another exciting event was the baritone’s debut at the Saito Kinen Festival in the summer as the Forester in Janacek’s The Cunning Little Vixen with Seiji Ozawa conducting.

In past seasons Quinn Kelsey sang Ping in Turandot and covered Thoas in Iphigénie en Tauride as well as the Count di Luna in Il Trovatore with the Lyric Opera of Chicago. He also returned to Hawaii Opera Theater for the role of Sharpless in Madama Butterfly and was heard in recital at Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall and at the Kennedy Center under the auspices of the Marilyn Horne Foundation and on their “On Wings of Song” Series in New York City, as well as in Los Angeles at the Cerritos Center in the Jose Iturbi Recital Series. In concert, Quinn Kelsey sang the baritone solo in Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana with Carlos Kalmar and the Grant Park Music Festival. Other engagements included a return to Hawaii Opera Theater for the role of Ping in Turandot, the Lyric Opera of Chicago’s 50th Anniversary concert celebration and Marilyn Horne’s Birthday Gala at Carnegie’s Zankel Hall. In the summer, Mr. Kelsey appeared as Montano and the Herald in Verdi’s Otello at the Ravinia Festival with James Conlon. Previous appearances at the Lyric Opera of Chicago included Wagner in Faust (for the baritone’s house debut), Yamadori and the Registrar in Madama Butterfly, the Forester in The Cunning Little Vixen, covers of Rigoletto, Donner in Das Rheingold, Amonasro in Aida, Jules in William Bolcom’s The Wedding and performances of Morales and Escamillo in Carmen, as well as of Monterone in Rigoletto.

In concert, Quinn Kelsey has performed Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, Duruflé’s Requiem, Handel’s Messiah, Fauré’s Requiem, Mozart’s Requiem, Menotti’s Amahl and the Night Visitors, Rutter’s Requiem, Beethoven’s Mass in C, Thompson’s Peaceable Kingdom, Haydn’s Lord Nelson Mass and Creation, and Puccini’s Messa di Gloria with major orchestral and choral organizations throughout Hawaii, including the Honolulu Symphony and the Maui Symphony as well as the Chicago Youth Symphony and the Chicago Children’s Choir.

Mr. Kelsey first performed with Hawaii Opera Theater as a teenaged chorus member and has since returned as a principal artist, appearing as Melot in Tristan und Isolde, Yamadori in Madama Butterfly, and most recently Marcello in La Bohème, a role he has also performed with the Merola Opera Program and the Western Opera Theater tour.

Most recently Mr. Kelsey won a Richard Tucker Foundation Career Grant (after winning a Sarah Tucker Study Grant) and was a finalist of the 2004 Placido Domingo Operalia Competition. In 2003 Quinn Kelsey won a Scholarship from the Solti Foundation of Chicago. Born and raised in Honolulu, Hawaii, Mr. Kelsey received his Bachelor’s of Music degree in Vocal Performance from the University of Hawaii at Manoa under John W. Mount.