Quinn Kelsey

Quinn Kelsey (born 7 March 1978) is an American baritone, who is particularly noted for his performances in the operas of Verdi.
Early life and training.
Kelsey was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, and began performing opera in 1991 as a chorus member of the Hawaii Opera Theatre. He received his bachelor’s degree in music with a major in vocal performance from the University of Hawaii at Manoa under John W. Mount. He has studied in the following programs: Chautauqua Institute with Marlena Malas, San Francisco’s Merola Opera Program under Sherry Greenwald and Mark Morash, and three years at Chicago's Lyric Opera Center for American Artists (now known as the Ryan Opera Center), during which he sang Wagner in Gounod's "Faust" and Yamadori and the Registrar in Puccini's "Madama Butterfly". He was also on the roster of the Marilyn Horne Foundation for two years, won a scholarship from the Solti Foundation of Chicago in 2003, was a finalist of the Plácido Domingo Operalia Competition in 2004, and represented the United States in the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Competition in 2005.
Operatic career.
Kelsey made his debut at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City as Schaunard in Puccini's "La bohème" on 29 March 2008. Other roles at the Met have included Monterone in Verdi's "Rigoletto" (role debut on 13 January 2011), Marcello in Puccini's "La bohème" (23 September 2014), Germont in Verdi's "La traviata" (11 December 2014), Peter in Humperdinck's "Hänsel und Gretel" (18 December 2017), the Count di Luna in Verdi's "Il trovatore" (23 January 2018), Enrico in Donizetti's "Lucia di Lammermoor" (25 April 2018), and Amonasro in Verdi's "Aida" (26 September 2018).
He made his debut at the Royal Opera House as Germont in "La traviata" in 2016 and has also performed there the Count di Luna in "Il trovatore". He has also appeared at the Santa Fe Opera, Canadian Opera Company, Zürich Opera, Hawaii Opera Theater, Norwegian National Opera, Semperoper Dresden, Rome Opera, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Frankfurt Opera, the Bregenz Festival and the Edinburgh Festival.
He sang the title role in Verdi's "Rigoletto" at the Opéra Bastille in a production by the Opéra National de Paris on 2 May 2016, a performance in which he is said to have "electrified the capacity audience". He also sang the role at the San Francisco Opera and the Chicago Lyric Opera in 2017. Other roles include Zurga in Bizet's "Les pêcheurs de perles", the Forester in Janáček's "The Cunning Little Vixen", Athanaël in Massenet's "Thaïs", and Sancho Panza in Massenet's "Don Quichotte".
Kelsey sang the role of Germont in "La traviata" at the Metropolitan Opera on 4 December 2018, a new production and the first appearance of Yannick Nézet-Séguin as the Met’s new music director. Violetta was sung by Diana Damrau, and Alfredo, by Juan Diego Flórez. F. Paul Driscoll, in his review of the performance in "Opera News", wrote: "All of the leading roles were sung with distinction, but Quinn Kelsey’s splendid Giorgio Germont was the most satisfactory of the three principal performances. Kelsey’s hefty, mahogany-colored baritone is ideal for Germont’s music, and his shrewd, dignified command of the drama made his Act II meeting with Violetta eminently affecting..." The fourth performance with this cast (15 December) was simulcast as part of the Metropolitan Opera Live in HD series.
Personal life.
Kelsey met his former wife, soprano Marjorie Owens, originally from Chesapeake, Virginia, when both were resident at the Ryan Opera Center in Chicago. Kelsey and Owens have occasionally sung together on tour, performing "Il trovatore" in Dresden and giving duo recitals, for instance, in Honolulu (25 January 2015); in Santa Fe (2 August 2015), where Kelsey was performing in "Rigoletto"; and in New York City (10 December 2017) at the Morgan Library's Gilder Lehrman Hall. Chicago remains as Kelsey’s main home base. He is now engaged to Canadian mezzo-soprano Deanna Pauletto since 2018.
Awards.
Kelsey was the recipient of the Met's Beverly Sills Artist Award in 2015.
Videos.
Streaming videos are available at Met Opera on Demand of his performances in the following roles: