Born and raised in Arlington, Virginia to very modest means, neither Carl nor his family had any idea he would grow up to become a world-renowned opera star. His mother kept house and raised Carl and his three brothers, while his father, who Carl says “was the hardest-working man I ever knew,” worked two full time and part time jobs to put food on the table and clothes on their backs. But during good times and bad, there was always music playing in the Tanner house. And though music was a big part of Carl’s life, in the beginning it was country music that influenced him. “Every Sunday my father and I would drive down to visit his brothers and sisters and I would turn the radio to whatever country music station his little Chevy Corvair could get, then I would sing along with John Denver, Willie Nelson, Roy Clark or whoever was crooning away at the time. I'm pretty sure that’s where I first got my love for music.” Carl started learning the violin when he was 13 years old and though he never really took it seriously, he says, “I do believe that was the start of my love for classical music.”
The first time Carl was “discovered” was after a Saturday football practice, when he was singing in the shower. He says, “a high school friend from four doors away came over to ask if that was me singing. I said, yeah, sorry about that!" She insisted that I try out for the school chorus. That became my first experience singing with an organized group of singers.” After graduating high school, Carl did various odd jobs to earn money so as not to be a burden on his parents. Then one day, he woke up to the realization that all his friends had left for college and he needed to figure out what he was going to do with the rest of his life. Since singing was all he really knew, he auditioned for and was accepted to the Shenandoah Conservatory of Music, where he earned a degree in Performance.
With that piece of paper in his pocket, Carl went back home to Arlington, still unsure what he was going to do next. To earn some money, he started driving a truck. Then, he was offered a job as a licensed bounty hunter and he says, “Yep, I was crazy enough to take it. It paid well and was exciting for a while but a few close calls convinced me that singing was what really made me happy. And, it was a heck of a lot safer.”
So in 1990, with a small bag of clothes and $75.00 in his pocket, Carl moved to New York City. One evening, while walking in Greenwich Village, he heard the sound of someone singing opera coming out of a tiny restaurant. He walked in, sat down at the bar and asked the bartender for a coke. The bartender replied, "Coke's not good for your voice.” When asked how he knew Carl was a singer, he said, “I can tell by the way you speak.” The bartender prompted him to get up and sing, which by a stroke of good fortune, became a defining moment in his young life. For at the restaurant that night was Richard Gaddes, Director of The Santa Fe Opera. Upon hearing Carl sing, he offered him a role in one of the operas that he was producing the following summer. Carl’s career as a professional opera singer was about to begin…
Carl Tanner has evolved into one of opera's great tenors. With his brilliant voice, he continues to perform to packed houses all over the world, from Covent Garden to La Scala, from New York to Berlin, from Naples to Washington. Carl was seen by millions on NBC's Today Show. After hearing Tanner's Metropolitan Opera Central Park performance of Turandot, the NY Post's classical critic wrote, “His voice is robust and virile, he delivered 'Nessun dorma,' the aria every tenor fan waits for, with passion and a ringing resonance. It would have brought the house down if there had been one."
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