Carl Tanner

Carl Tanner (born 1962, Arlington, Virginia) is an American operatic tenor.

Born into "very modest means," Carl Tanner's earliest exposure to music was in the form of country icons such as John Denver, Willie Nelson, and Roy Clark. He began taking violin lessons at the age of 13 and, although he never took the instrument seriously, Tanner claims that this was the start of his love for classical music. A neighbor convinced him to try out for the high school chorus after hearing him sing in the shower, and after a year of singing as soloist for the chorus he auditioned for The Madrigals.

After graduating from Washington-Lee High School in Arlington, Virginia, Tanner attended the Shenandoah Conservatory of Music at Shenandoah University in Winchester, Virginia where in 1985 he earned a Bachelor's degree. Upon his return to Arlington he enrolled in the Northern Virginia Trucking Academy and spent the next several years as a big rig truck driver. To earn extra money he moonlighted as a modern-day bounty hunter for Arlington-area bail bondsmen.

A turning point for Tanner came one day while he was inching his way along Interstate 95 in the cab of his 18-wheeler, singing the Giacomo Puccini aria "E lucevan le stelle" from Act III of Tosca to pass the time, when a woman in a convertible in the next lane called up to him: "Is that you, or is that the radio?" "That's me, lady," Tanner replied. "Well then, you've missed your calling," the woman declared. "You should be singing for a living, not driving."

Soon thereafter Tanner decided to embark upon a musical career. With the support of his employer, he moved to New York City in 1990 and, in late 1991 while working as a singing waiter in the restaurant Bianchi and Margarita's, he was heard by Richard Gaddes, the head of the Santa Fe Opera, who arranged for him to join the Apprentice Program for Singers for 1992 (and then 1993) to obtain more training. His most recent work was the role of Otello in Palm Beach Opera's Otello.

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