Reluctant Northern Virginia Tenor Finds Global Success

To talk to him, Carl Tanner doesn't sound like your conventional opera singer. He doesn't go on about the critics or the roles he's sung. And rather than having hoped for the chance to perform at the Met his entire life, he spent years trying to escape his gift. Now with his upcoming performance of Manrico in Il Travatore at the Washington National Opera and his growing international success, the Northern Virginia native has accepted his role as singer and artist.

While a student of music his entire life, Tanner began his training as a violinist. At the age of eight Tanner started taking lessons, which he continued until he graduated high school. While admitting he wasn't very good, he said that the study gave him an appreciation for the finer nuances of music.

“You sing like you play an instrument,” he said. After becoming a singer Tanner found that his knowledge of dynamics and pace in instrumental music helped him as a singer.

But in high school, singing was the last thing on his mind. In fact he resisted performing. At the age of 14 Tanner formed a band with three of his friends where he played the keyboard. The group would perform covers of popular songs at junior high and high schools in the area.

But rather than jumping at the chance to sing, Tanner refused. In fact no one in the band was willing to sing, and a group with a future opera star among them played only instrumental scores.

Then, when he was 16 a neighbor overheard him through the wall singing in the shower and tried to convince him to join the choir. A football player and wrestler, Tanner was dubious about singing in the choir but agreed to audition.

But Tanner didn't know any classical pieces. The only song he knew was the Lord's Prayer which he had learned as a surprise for his mother.

Halfway through the audition the choir director stopped him. Rather than telling him he was terrible, as Tanner expected, he told Tanner that he had a gift but his voice was too big to blend with a choir. For the rest of the year the teacher worked with Tanner privately and convinced him to do solos with the choir.

The next year Tanner joined the smaller madrigal singing group where once again he had most of the solos. Despite this experience he left high school with no intention of following music. He attended the University of Maryland on a football scholarship, but left after just one day feeling that college wasn't right for him.

For a year afterwards he drove a truck and watched as his friends left for college. After a year he decided to audition for Shenandoah Music Conservatory rather than spend another year driving a truck.

Once again he auditioned with the Lord's Prayer and once again he stunned the judges and was accepted, though there wasn't any scholarship money available.

With his mother's help and some support from his Methodist church, Tanner was able to attend the college. After college, with a degree in voice, Tanner was once again on the run from his talent. “All I wanted to do was get out of college and not be a singer anymore,” he said.

Tanner went back to driving a truck for two years until his friend suggested he get a job as a bounty hunter. For the next two years Tanner spent his life tracking down people in Virginia who had skipped their bond. With his imposing size Tanner was exceptionally good at the work, apprehending 168 people over that time period. But two shocking events ultimately led him to return to music.

One night after agreeing to back up his employer when he went to apprehend a bond violator, he watched as the suspect took a head first dive out of a third story window in an attempt to escape capture. The man landed on the ground mere feet away from Tanner, spraying him with blood.

The second event was during an apprehension when a young man unloaded 17 shots at him, fortunately striking him only once. After getting the kid into his car he lectured to him the entire way into the station about what he was making of his life. “I suddenly realized that I was sitting there and preaching to myself,” he said. "Within a week I had scraped together 50 dollars, a bag of clothes and moved to New York, sleeping on a friend's floor and trying to make it as a singer. The change wasn't only in his profession but also in his attitude toward his talent. Even while working as a bounty hunter Tanner had continued to take voice lessons, but he was constantly criticized for his focus and work ethic. With the new direction in his life came a renewed energy for his voice and for improving his technique.

Even with his natural talent and focus, success still didn't come immediately. In fact Tanner said that it wasn't until four years ago that he really came into his voice, although he was already starting to see growing success in the international opera scene. Now he is everywhere, performing 11 months out of the year and in some of the most famous venues in the world; from La Scala in Milan to the Metropolitan Opera in New York City.

Looking back, he has no regrets about the time he spent not singing. His type of voice, Spinto Tenor, a rare and resounding tenor sound, often requires time to mature and pushing it too hard too early can actually damage it. And as for his resistance, Tanner said that his success has proved to him the inexorable nature of life. “I believe in fate,” he said. “I was meant to be a singer.”

Now along with his success abroad Tanner is starting to get recognition closer to home. Next Monday he will begin performing at the Kennedy Center for the Washington National Opera and on December 2 he sing at the lighting of the National Christmas tree. After 12 years of living in New York he has moved back to Arlington where he has bought an old house and has been working to renovate it. He said that he appreciates being back in Virginia. Though an opera singer, he still thinks of himself as just a normal guy and sees the term 'Diva' as a four letter word; as an act that some singers put on to make up for a low self-esteem.

In fact the thing he finds hardest about the job is the amount of traveling he has to do. "When I was young, the furthest I ever traveled was to Charlottesville. Now I travel 150,000 miles a year," he said. "It's a tough job, but I always think of how lucky I am." Even with all the exciting venues and countries, Tanner appreciates getting back home from a trip. "Home for me has always been Northern Virginia, home is where I grew up," he said. Though he has finally accepted his voice, his gift, he said that it hasn't made coming back to Virginia difficult. "You can always go back home," he said.