Mexican-born conductor Roberto Kalb is the current music director of Detroit Opera. ln the 2023-2024 season, Roberto will make multiple house debuts including Santa Fe Opera conducting L'elisir d'amore, Atlanta Opera Rigoletto, the Kansas City Symphony, and the Civic Orchestra of Chicago. Alongside these debuts, Roberto will return to Detroit Opera to conduct The Cunning Little Vixen and an Arias and Overtures Gala, and the Lyric Opera of Kansas City to conduct Cavalleria Rusticana/Pagliacci.   Highlights from the 2022-2023 season included performances at the Lyric Opera of Chicago, Lyric Opera of Kansas City, San Diego Opera, and San Francisco Opera.   ln 2019, Kalb concluded his five-season tenure as resident conductor and head of music at Opera Theatre of Saint Louis with a critically acclaimed run of Rigoletto in collaboration with the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra, which Opera News lauded: "The orchestra sounded sublime under the baton of Roberto Kalb, whose buoyant conducting simultaneously led and followed the singers."   Roberto has an impressive repertoire of performances with various renowned opera companies. These include the Opéra Orchestre National Montpellier, Florida Grand Opera, Kentucky Opera, Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, Michigan Opera Theatre, Wolf Trap Opera, Opera Maine, and Tulsa Opera. Additionally, he has conducted performances with the Orquesta Carlos Chavez in Mexico City and the Orquestra Sinfonica da USP in Sao Paulo. Roberto's experience also extends to his previous work as a cover and assistant conductor for the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and the Canadian Opera Company in Toronto, as well as performances with the National Symphony, St. Louis Symphony, San Diego Symphony, and Louisville Orchestra.   In 2021, Roberto was awarded the prestigious 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.   Photo credit: Simon Pauly

The Detroit Opera Orchestra is rapidly gaining recognition for its “vibrantly colored” performances (New Yorker), performing throughout the season in the Detroit Opera House and in the wider metro Detroit community. Chosen through a competitive national audition process, musicians come from as close as Detroit, Ann Arbor and Grosse Pointe to Pennsylvania, New York, and more; many serve on the faculties at area universities and conservatories. During the 2023–24 season, the orchestra performs in four operas: Madame Butterfly, Europeras 3 & 4, Breaking the Waves, and The Cunning Little Vixen. The orchestra can be seen and heard outside the Opera House as well; “Beyond the Pit,” a free concert series in the Detroit community curated by Music Director Roberto Kalb, features mostly symphonic music. The first concert in “Beyond the Pit” takes place on December 16, 2023 at Western High School in Detroit.