These concerts are the North Carolina Symphony debut of Kenneth Tarver.

A specialist in Mozart and operatic repertoire, Kenneth Tarver has appeared at opera houses and concert halls around the world. Recent performances include two concert performances of Mozart’s Don Giovanni in Vienna and Lucerne, Francesco Corselli’s Achille in Sciro at Madrid’s Teatro Real, Berlioz’s Requiem and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the Seattle Symphony, Donizetti’s Don Pasquale at the Bolshoi in Moscow, and Rossini’s Eduardo e Cristina, L’Occasione fa il ladro, and Sigismondo at Rossini in Wildbad. Previous appearances in Handel’s Messiah have included performances with the New York Philharmonic and Dresdner Philharmonie.

Tarver’s extensive recording catalogue includes collaborations with Teodor Currentzis and MusicAeterna for Mozart’s Così fan tutte and Don Giovanni, Pierre Boulez and The Cleveland Orchestra for Berlioz’s Les nuits d’été and Roméo et Juliette, Kent Nagano and the London Symphony Orchestra for Bernstein’s A White House Cantata, and Sir Colin Davis and the London Symphony Orchestra for Berlioz’s Béatrice et Bénédict, Roméo et Juliette, and Les Troyens, which won Grammy Awards for Best Opera Recording and Best Classical Recording.

Tarver is a winner of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and was a member of the Metropolitan Opera’s Young Artist Development Program and the Staatsoper Stuttgart. A graduate of Interlochen Arts Academy and Oberlin College Conservatory of Music, he holds a Master’s degree from Yale University School of Music, where he received the Dean’s Award for Most Outstanding Student in the graduating class.