Keith Kibler

Biography

The bright heft and fully-focused center of a Helden-baritone,” “His aria could not have been more intense or eloquent,” “A thrillingly centered voice with heroic ring,” “The model of what a bass-baritone should be.” These are just a few of the critical accolades bass-baritone Keith Kibler has received for recent appearances. He was cited as a promising singer while still an undergraduate by The New York Times and made his national debuts at the age of twenty-four with the Opera Theatre of St. Louis and with the Boston Symphony under Seiji Ozawa. He has since built a career of great versatility and is one of the region’s best-known artists, having appeared with every major orchestral and choral organization in New England. Keith Kibler has sung leading roles internationally with some of the opera world’s best directors: Russian opera with Galina Vishnevskaya, Mozart with Peter Sellars, Britten with David Alden and Lou Galterio, and Handel with Tito Copobianco, to name a few. He has sung the concert repertoire with the finest soloists, including Seth McCoy, Jon Humphrey, Elly Ameling, and Thomas Paul among others. Mr. Kibler studied the song literature with the late Geoffrey Parsons as the recipient of a fellowship from the Frank Huntington Beebe Fund. Shortly thereafter he won first prize in the Jessie Kneisel Lieder Competition. He has sung a wide range of early music with period instrument ensembles and was a visiting artist with the Boston Camerata. Summer engagements include appearances at the Monadnock, Wolftrap, Norfolk, and Tanglewood festivals, with pops concerts at the Finger Lakes Performing Arts Center and with the Boston Pops in Symphony Hall, Boston, Harry Ellis Dickson conducting. Mr. Kibler has premiered new compositions by Malcolm Peyton, Rodney Lister, Peter Homans, and he sang major roles in the Boston premiers of Alban Berg’s Wozzeck and Arnold Schoenberg’s Gurrelieder, both conducted by Gunther Schuller. Recent engagements have included the Beethoven 9th Symphony under conductors Kaziyoshi Akiyama and Kate Tamarkin.

Twice a Fellow of the Tanglewood Music Center, Keith Kibler’s doctorate was earned at Yale University and the Eastman School of Music. He is one of the region’s most sought after teachers with students accepted at the New England Conservatory, the Juilliard School, Peabody and Hartt Conservatories, the Tanglewood Institute, and the Aspen Music School.