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The Canadian tenor, Nolan Kehler, obtained his his Bachelor of Music in Vocal Performance from Canadian Mennonite University in Winnipeg (September 2012-April 2017), where he studied with David Klassen. He also went to volleyball camp for a couple of weeks in the summers of his tween years, but his vertical definitely isn’t what it used to be. He obtained his Master of Music degree in Vocal Performance from the University of Victoria (September 2017-April 2019), where he studied with Benjamin Butterfield.
A participant in the 2021 Digital Emerging Artists Program with Manitoba Opera, Nolan Kehler made company debuts during the pandemic with COSA Canada (Mr. Miggles in Caryl and Ross’ The Shop Girl), Good Mess Opera Theatre (Mosca’s aria from John Musto’s Volpone), and stepping in as Nerone for the University of Manitoba Opera Theatre’s production of L’incoronazione di Poppea. On the concert stage, Nolan’s recent highlights have included soloist debuts with the Regina Symphony Orchestra and the Canzona chamber choir in George Frideric Handel’s Messiah under the baton of Gordon Gerrard, and the Winnipeg Singers under the direction of Yuri Klaz performing Tchaikovsky’s Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom and G.F. Handel's Coronation Anthems.
Much of Nolan Kehler's artistic energies in the last number of months have gone to Opera InReach, an educational collective dedicated to instilling a passion for opera engagement and creation among future generations with an eye towards equity, diversity, inclusivity, justice, and accessibility. He serves as the organization’s Provincial Coordinator for their Manitoba chapter, and their work has included a collaboration with Against the Grain Theatre called the Messiah Project to produce a performance of the “Hallelujah” chorus with the Mennonite Collegiate Institute Concert Choir as part of Against the Grain’s award-winning Messiah/Complex.
Other career highlights have included appearances with the Little Opera Company of Winnipeg performing as Larry and Matt in Henry Mollicone’s chamber opera The Face on the Barroom Floor back in the fall of 2019. That year also saw Nolan assume the title role in G.F. Handel’s Acis and Galatea with the University of Victoria Voice Ensemble, under the direction of Isaiah Bell and musical leadership of Larry Beckwith.
Nolan Kehler's 2019 summer was a full one, spent in development programs with St. Andrews Opera Workshop (Roméo in Charles Gounod's Roméo et Juliette) and Against the Grain Theatre’s Summer Modern Intensive production, This is Prophetic! (Bégearss in Ghosts of Versailles, Earl of Essex in Benjamin Britten's Gloriana). He also completed a European tour of Spain and Finland as a chorister with the Winnipeg Singers where the choir captured the Grand Prix at the Golden Voices of Barcelona International Vocal Festival.
On the concert stage, Nolan Kehler appeared this past season with the University of Victoria Orchestra as a soloist for L.v. Beethoven's Choral Fantasy and Leonard Bernstein's Chichester Psalms, as well as the UVic Wind Symphony and Voice Ensembles as the tenor soloist in Kurt Weill’s Berliner Requiem. Nolan also appeared in two performances with the Victoria Baroque Players in their 2017-2018 season as a soloist in the cantatas of J.S. Bach, and as the tenor soloist in the Victoria Philharmonic Choir’s performance of Puccini’s Messa di Gloria. Somewhere in that time, there was a couple of graduating recitals, delightful seniors’ residence gigs…
Nolan Kehler was privileged to be a part of the workshop process for Maxime Goulet’s new children’s opera, The Flight of the Hummingbird. A co-production between Pacific Opera Victoria and Vancouver Opera, the production is based on the well-known indigenous parable that is rooted in Haida culture. The libretto was written by Barry Gilson and Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas, who also authored the best-selling Haida-manga book telling the story of the courageous hummingbird Dukdukdiya. He played Taan/Tooth the bear in the production’s second and third workshop sessions in May and November of 2019. In 2018, he played the titular character in John Davies’ children’s opera, Jack and the Beanstalk with Manitoba UNDERGROUND Opera, which toured across libraries in the Winnipeg Public Library system. In addition, he performed leading roles as a part of Opera NUOVA’s 20th anniversary season in Edmonton, appearing as Jack in Into the Woods and Valère in Kirke Mechem’s Tartuffe.
When he is not singing, Nolan Kehler still finds himself immersed in the world of music. He moonlights as a drummer in a variety of bands, including with Kenzie Jane and Two Crows for Comfort, playing different styles of music, from R&B to folk to rock. You can also sometimes hear Nolan’s silent contributions (and occasionally not-silent contributions) to CBC Manitoba, where he works as an associate technical producer for their local radio shows (since September 2016), Information Radio, Radio Noon, and Up to Speed, and the Weekend Morning Show, where he curates classical music selections and a weekly segment highlighting the works of female composers. He is Bach Institute 2023 Fellow of Emmanuel Music (Artistic Director: Ryan Turner). |
