Roberto Kalb, Conductor

Mexican-born conductor Roberto Kalb is Music Director of Detroit Opera, where his contract was recently extended through June 2030.

In the 2026–27 season, Roberto conducts Tosca in a new production at Detroit Opera, where he also leads Fiddler on the Roof. He makes his Théâtre des Champs-Élysées debut conducting a concert performance of La rondine with the Orchestre National Bordeaux Aquitaine, and his Münchner Rundfunkorchester debut in a program comprising Patrick Harlin’s The Wilderness Anthology, George Walker’s Lyric for Strings, and Gabriela Lena Frank’s Conquest Requiem. He also returns to Staatsoper Stuttgart for La traviata and conducts La bohème at Seattle Opera.

In the 2025–26 season, Roberto made several important house debuts, conducting La bohème at the Metropolitan Opera, El último sueño de Frida y Diego at Lyric Opera of Chicago, and Carmen at Staatsoper Stuttgart in his German debut. Other highlights included his return to The Atlanta Opera for Götterdämmerung, the U.S. premiere of Tobias Picker’s Lili Elbe at Santa Fe Opera, a double bill of William Grant Still’s Highway 1, USA and Kurt Weill’s Down in the Valley at Detroit Opera, and Madame Butterfly at Lyric Opera of Kansas City. On the concert stage, he conducted the Opera Gala for the German AIDS Foundation at Deutsche Oper am Rhein.

Previous operatic highlights include West Side Story for his house debut at Houston Grand Opera, Siegfried at The Atlanta Opera, and La traviata and Rinaldo at Detroit Opera. He has also conducted L’elisir d’amore at Santa Fe Opera, Rigoletto at The Atlanta Opera, Yuval Sharon’s production of The Cunning Little Vixen at Detroit Opera, and a double bill of Cavalleria rusticana and Pagliacci at Lyric Opera of Kansas City. Further engagements have taken him to San Francisco Opera, San Diego Opera, Florida Grand Opera, Kentucky Opera, Wolf Trap Opera, Opera Maine, Tulsa Opera, and the Compañía Nacional de Ópera at Mexico City’s Palacio de Bellas Artes. In 2019, he concluded his five-season tenure as Resident Conductor and Head of Music at Opera Theatre of Saint Louis with a critically acclaimed production of Rigoletto in collaboration with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra.

On the concert platform, Roberto has appeared with the Britt Music & Arts Festival, Civic Orchestra of Chicago, Opéra Orchestre National Montpellier, Orquesta Sinfónica del Estado de México, Orquesta Sinfónica de Minería, Orquesta Escuela Carlos Chávez, and Orquestra Sinfônica da Universidade de São Paulo. His operatic work has also brought him into collaboration with orchestras including the National Symphony Orchestra, San Diego Symphony, and Kansas City Symphony.

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