Music Director, Detroit Opera

Mexican-born conductor Roberto Kalb has served as Music Director of Detroit Opera since 2022. He conducted Detroit Opera’s performances of La traviata in October 2024, The Cunning Little Vixen in May 2024 and two concerts featuring the Detroit Opera Orchestra and Resident Artists in the fall of 2023. He conducted Yuval Sharon’s new production of La bohème at Detroit Opera in 2022. Additional 2023–24 season performances for Roberto included house debuts at Santa Fe Opera (L’elisir d’amore) and Atlanta Opera (Rigoletto), concerts with the Kansas City Symphony and the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, and Cavalleria rusticana/Pagliacci at Lyric Opera of Kansas City. Season highlights in 2022–23 included performances at the Lyric Opera of Chicago, Lyric Opera of Kansas City, San Diego Opera, and San Francisco Opera.

In 2019, Roberto concluded a five-year tenure as resident conductor and head of music at Opera Theatre of Saint Louis (OTSL), where he led the world premiere of Tobias Picker’s Awakenings (2022); he also conducted OTSL’s critically acclaimed run of Rigoletto (2019) in collaboration with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra. Roberto has also conducted at companies including Opéra Orchestra National Montpellier, Florida Grand Opera, Kentucky Opera, Wolf Trap Opera, Opera Maine, and Tulsa Opera.

He has conducted performances with the Orquesta Sinfónica del Estado de México, Orquesta Carlos Chavez in Mexico City, the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, Palm Beach Symphony, and the Orquestra Sinfonica da USP in São Paulo, Brazil.

Roberto holds degrees from the University of Michigan and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and in 2021 was awarded the prestigious Solti Foundation U.S. Career Assistance Award. He is married to soprano Mané Galoyan.

Photo credit: Simon Pauly