Conductor Robert Tweten joined New England Conservatory’s opera faculty as Music Director of Graduate Opera Studies in 2017. Tweten has been described by Opera News as conducting “brilliantly” with an “unerring sense of balance, blend, and drama” and having “ a 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. 

Robert has served as the Head of Music Staff for The Santa Fe Opera since the position was created for him in 2000. During his tenure, Tweten has conducted performances of Don Giovanni, Le nozze di Figaro, Katya Kabanova, The Pirates of Penzance, Ermione, the 50th Anniversary Concert, and The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs, and most recently stepped in to conduct three performances of Falstaff in August 2022. 

Maestro Tweten has enjoyed a long relationship with Utah Opera and Symphony, where he has conducted nineteen productions. Other top American collaborations include the Lyric Opera of Chicago, where he served for many seasons as an Assistant Conductor and recently conducted Turandot, Florentine Opera, Opera San Antonio, Kentucky Opera, Dayton Opera, Austin Lyric Opera, Tulsa Opera, Opera Birmingham, Opera Southwest, Madison Opera, El Paso Opera, and Sarasota Opera. Tweten has conducted extensively in his native Canada, with productions including: Pacific Opera Victoria (Rigoletto), Calgary Opera (Die Zauberflöte, Le nozze di Figaro, Pagliacci/Gianni Schicchi, Il barbiere di Siviglia, L’italiana in Algeri, Rigoletto, and Otello), Vancouver Opera (Tosca and Il barbiere di Siviglia), Edmonton Opera (Lucia di Lammermoor, Rigoletto, Madama Butterfly, and Fidelio), Don Giovanni with Opera Ontario, The Gondoliers with UBC Opera, and L’isola disabitata with the Canadian Opera Company. Tweten’s orchestral work includes a number of performances with the New Mexico Philharmonic, the Santa Fe Pro Musica Orchestra, the Santa Fe Symphony, and the Fresno and San Diego Symphonies. 

Tweten began his career as a piano soloist after receiving his Associate of Arts Degree from the Victoria Conservatory of Music and winning competitions, including the Du Maurier Search for Stars and the Canadian National Piano Championship. After working at the Banff Center of Fine Arts, he joined the Houston Grand Opera Studio where he was on the team for the world premiere performances of the Emmy award-winning Nixon in China, and later served as a vocal coach and assistant conductor for the Canadian Opera Company and Lyric Opera of Chicago.

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, Ailyn Pérez, Joshua Hopkins, Elizabeth Futral, Catherine Malfitano, Joyce DiDonato, Samuel Ramey, Thomas Hampson, Rod Gilfry, Suzanne Mentzer, 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.

Robert serves as Music Director of the Sag Harbor Song Festival, which was inaugurated in 2022 and just celebrated its fourth season. Singers he has performed with include: Leah Hawkins, Anna Christy, Sarah Coit, Jonathan Johnson, Jarrett Ott, David Leigh, Lydia Grindatto, Erika Baikoff, Sarah Mesko, Duke Kim, Justin Austin, William Guanbo Su, Amber Norelai, Susanna Phillips, Cecelia Hall, David Portillo, Darren LeKeith Drone, and Le Bu. 

2024 marked Tweten’s third consecutive summer acting as curator and pianist for Santa Fe’s Festival of Song. Singers that he has partnered with in these recitals include Tamara Wilson, Heidi Melton, Elena Villalón, Nicholas Brownlee, Jack Swanson, Emily Fons, Ailyn Pérez, Robert Watson, Samantha Hankey, Huw Montague Rendall, Lauren Snouffer, David Portillo, Jennifer Johnson Cano, Anthony Roth Costanzo, Liv Redpath, Paula Murrihy, William Guanbo Su, and Rolando Villazón. 

During his tenure at NEC, Robert has conducted 16 productions of repertoire, spanning over 350 years, including: Later the Same Evening, Le nozze di Figaro, Postcard from Morocco, Il re pastore, La Calisto, Don Pasquale, Dido & Aeneas, An American Dream, L’Enfant et les Sortilèges, L’arbore di Diana, Die Fledermaus, Così fan tutte, and La bohème.

Conducting engagements during the 2025/26 season will include a return to Utah Opera to conduct La traviata, productions of Flight, L’elisir d’amore, and Le nozze di Figaro at NEC, and two performances of Eugene Onegin with The Santa Fe Opera.