Fernando del Valle

Fernando del Valle
del Valle in 2010
Background information
Birth name	Brian Stephen Skinner
Born	(1964-02-28)February 28, 1964 New Orleans, Louisiana, United States
Genres	Opera
Occupation(s)	Opera singer
Instruments	Tenor

Fernando del Valle (né Brian Skinner, 28 February 1964) is an American operatic tenor. He is the son of Edward King Skinner II, a U.S. Army veteran of the Korean War and Concha Marina Meléndez del Valle, the daughter of Baroness Aranka von Bischitz.

He took the name del Valle in honour of his grandfather, Fernando Meléndez del Valle, who was also a tenor and diplomat for El Salvador at the consulate of El Salvador in New Orleans. He is the great, great grandson of Andrés del Valle, President of El Salvador in 1876 and a direct descendant of Colonel José María San Martín, President of El Salvador (1854–56) and founder of Santa Tecla, El Salvador. He is the grandson of the Honorable Judge Robert J. Skinner, former recorder and treasurer (for the City of New Orleans), a regimental sergeant-major in World War One, and the great grandson of Judge Edward King Skinner, who served on the city, criminal and civil district court benches, successively, over a total period of 52 years In 1880 He was appointed to first district court after the Civil War. A year after his retirement attorneys gave civil district court a portrait in oils of Judge Skinner. The portrait by John Paul Parker, was presented to the court by United States Attorney Rene A. Viosca, who was then president of the New Orleans Bar Association.

He was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States. A graduate of Brother Martin High School, he received his Bachelor of Fine Arts from Tulane University as the recipient of the Treville Scholarship in Voice, and the Artists Diploma from Southern Methodist University as the Haggar Scholar. As a winner of The Dallas Opera Guild Vocal Competition he was awarded a Career Grant from The Dallas Opera, the winner of the Stewart Award, the Austin Lyric Opera Vocal Competition, the Fort Worth Opera Competition and the Vocal Competition of the San Antonio Opera judged by Evelyn Lear and Richard Gaddes. He is an alumnus of the San Francisco Opera's Merola Opera Program where he studied under the direction of Patrick Summers in 1992 and 1993. He later won the "Bel Canto" competition of Chicago and subsequently relocated to Italy where he studied under Carlo Bergonzi and, later, Thomas Hayward and Nicolai Gedda.