Conductor Robert Tweten joined the New England Conservatory opera faculty as Music Director of Opera Studies in Fall 2017 and has conducted NEC Opera productions of Later the Same Evening , Le nozze di Figaro, Il re pastore, Postcard from Morocco, Don Pasquale, Dido and Aeneas, An American Dream, and L’Enfant et les Sortilèges.
Tweten has been described as leading with “verve and precision,” as well as having “flawless” pacing and “musicality and near-symbiotic accord with singers which always impresses.” An active operatic conductor in demand throughout the United States and Canada, Robert brings a wealth of experience to his work with the students at NEC.
Maestro Tweten has been associated with several opera companies throughout his career, including the Canadian Opera Company, where his duties included Head Coach and Chorus Master, The Banff Center of Fine Arts, where he was a conductor for the Music Theater Studio Ensemble as well as a coach for the Opera and Musical Theater programs, and the Houston Grand Opera where he was a member of the Houston Grand Opera Studio. Robert spent many years with Lyric Opera of Chicago as an Assistant Conductor, and has led the Lyric Opera of Chicago Orchestra and singers of the Ryan Opera Center in Rising Stars in Concert, as well as conducted LOC performances of Die Zauberflöte and Turandot.
Robert has enjoyed a long relationship with Utah Opera where he recently conducted Flight, his fifteenth production with the company since 2005. Tweten has conducted extensively in his native Canada, with productions including: Calgary Opera (Otello, Die Zauberflöte, Le nozze di Figaro, Pagliacci/ Gianni Schicchi,Il Barbiere di Siviglia, L’italiana in Algeri, Rigoletto), Vancouver Opera (Tosca, Il Barbiere di Siviglia,) Edmonton Opera (Lucia di Lammermoor, Rigoletto, Madama Butterfly, Fidelio), Don Giovanni for Opera Ontario, The Gondoliers for UBC Opera, and L’isola disabitata with the Canadian Opera Company.
Other opera companies he has collaborated with include Sarasota Opera, Dayton Opera, Kentucky Opera, Tulsa Opera, Austin Lyric Opera, Opera Birmingham, El Paso Opera, Opera Southwest and Madison Opera.
After conducting the New Mexico Philharmonic's season-opening concert in 2011, Tweten has returned to lead two programs, including playing and conducting Mozart's K.488 piano concerto. Other orchestral collaborations include classical crossover concerts with the San Diego and Fresno Symphonies, as well as many appearances with the Santa Fe Symphony in orchestral concerts, as well as Handel’s Messiah and Mozart’s Requiem.
Robert began his career as a piano soloist after receiving his Associate of Arts Degree from the Victoria Conservatory of Music and winning competitions such as the Du Maurier Search for Stars and the Canadian National Piano Championship. Equally at home as a recitalist, collaborator, and chamber musician, he has performed with many of the industry’s most prominent singers and instrumentalists, including Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, Joshua Hopkins, Rod Gilfry, Elizabeth Futral, Catherine Malfitano, Samuel Ramey, Thomas Hampson, Joyce Di Donato, Rachel Barton Pine, the Taos Chamber Music Group, and the St. Lawrence Quartet, in venues such as Alice Tully Hall, Chicago’s Orchestra Hall, the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, Los Angeles’ Disney Hall, Barcelona’s Gran Teatre del Liceu, Vienna’s Konzerthaus, London’s Wigmore Hall, and the Salzburg Festival.
The 2022 season marked Robert’s 32nd season with The Santa Fe Opera where he serves as Head of Music Staff. During his tenure with SFO he has conducted Don Giovanni, Le nozze di Figaro, Katya Kabanova, The Pirates of Penzance, Ermione, as well as the 50th Anniversary Concert and performances of the Grammy Award winning, The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs.
Some of Maestro Tweten’s most recent performances include stepping in to conduct three performance of Verdi’s Falstaff in August 2022 for The Santa Fe Opera, as well as conducting Mahagonny Songspiel with Florentine Opera, Don Giovanni with Opera San Antonio, and Jonathan Dove’s Flight with Utah Opera. Recent recitals include Performance Santa Fe’s 2022 Festival of Song with Tamara Wilson, Heidi Melton, Elena Villalón, Nicholas Brownlee, Jack Swanson, and Emily Fons. Robert serves as Music Director and Pianist in October 2022 for the inaugural season of the Sag Harbor Song Festival, which includes recitals with Leah Hawkins, Anna Christy, Sarah Coit, Jonathan Johnson, Jarrett Ott and David Leigh. Upcoming conducting engagements include orchestral concerts with Santa Fe Pro Musica Orchestra, and a return to Utah Opera to conduct The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs.
A.V.C.M. Associate of the Victoria Conservatory of Music (Performance)
A.V.C.M. Associate of the Victoria Conservatory of Music (Pedagogy)
A.A. Mus VCM
