Next Engagement

July 9th and 11th, 2008

  Szymanowski Stabat Mater

Grant Park Music Festival

Recent Press

Madison Opera - Lucia di Lammermoor

"Quinn Kelsey was darkly villainous as the selfish Enrico"

John W. Barker - Isthmus/Daily Page

Baritone Quinn Kelsey has come a long way from home in Honolulu, Hawai’i. He began in opera as a member of the Hawai’i Opera Theatre chorus in 1991. While completing his undergrad degree, Kelsey was heard with the Hawai’i Opera Theatre as Lady Macbeth’s servant and the Cutthroat/Verdi’s Macbeth, Silvano/Verdi’s Un Ballo in Maschera, Melot/Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde, and Morales/Bizet’s Carmen. In the summer of 2001, Mr. Kelsey studied with Marlena Malas at the Chautauqua Institute in western New York state. The baritone also had the privilege of working with clinicians Ken Merrill, Brian Zeger, Jay Lesenger, Mikael Eliasen, and Craig Rutenberg. In the summer of 2002, Kelsey was accepted into the Merola Opera Program in San Francisco where he performed Marcello/Puccini’s La Boheme. That fall, the baritone joined the program’s touring arm, the Western Opera Theater, in its production of La Boheme singing 7 performances as Marcello at a number of venues across the country. he received his Bachelor of Music degree in Vocal Performance from the University of Hawai’i at Manoa under John W. Mount. In the spring of 2003, the baritone performed Marcello again in La Boheme. It was at this point that the Hawai’i native relocated to Chicago to join the Lyric Opera Center for American Artists (now called the Ryan Opera Center). During his three years of study with LOCAA, Kelsey was heard as Wagner/Gounod’s Faust, Yamadori/Puccini’s Madama Butterfly, the Forester/Janacek’s Cunning Little Vixen (student matinee), Morales/Bizet’s Carmen and Escamillo (student matinee), Monterone/Verdi’s Rigoletto, and Ping/Puccini’s Turandot. Most recently for Lyric Opera, the baritone sang Marcello once again as well as the Spirit Messenger/Strauss’ Die Frau Ohne Schatten. Kelsey has returned as a principal artist to Hawai’i appearing as Marcello/La Bohème, the Mandarin and Ping/Turandot, and most recently for Sharpless/Puccini’s Madama Butterfly. 2008 has already been highlighted by two very important debuts. This spring, the baritone celebrated his Metropolitan Opera debut as Schaunard in La Boheme as well as his Madison Opera debut as Enrico/Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor. As a soloist, Kelsey most recently performed in recital with Georgian accompanist Tamara Sanikidze under the auspices of the Marilyn Horne Foundation and Washington D.C.'s Vocal Arts Society at the John F. Kennedy Center Terrace Theater as well as Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall. The baritone’s recent concert work includes Orff's Carmina Burana and Duruflé’s Requiem with the Chicago Youth Symphony, the Chicago Children’s Choir, the Grant Park Music Festival Orchestra and Choir, and the Glen Ellyn Children's Choir. Kelsey represented the United States with fellow Lyric Opera Center alum soprano Nicole Cabell at the 2005 BBC Singer of the World competition in Cardiff, Wales, and was recently awarded a Richard Tucker Career Grant from the Richard Tucker Music Foundation. As well, Kelsey has been invited to compete in Placido Domingo’s Operalia competition this coming September. In August, Mr. Kelsey will make yet another debut, this time with the Saito Kinen Festival performing the role of the Forester in Janacek’s Cunning Little Vixen under the baton of Maestro Seiji Ozawa. Then, in the Fall, the baritone will make his fourth debut of the year with Opera Memphis as Germont in La Traviata.