BIO
For a professional bio (this is quite long-winded), click here!
Tenor Nolan Kehler brings a passion and energy to the stage that is tangible and infectious for an audience. This passion was instilled deep in the Manitoba prairies, bred on a steady diet of Mennonite choral music, James Taylor, and STOMP. How this translates to the classical music world is still being worked out - and maybe it doesn’t have to be.
Nolan completed his master’s degree in vocal performance at the University of Victoria in spring of 2019, where he studied with Benjamin Butterfield. Prior to this, he earned his Bachelor of Music in vocal performance at Canadian Mennonite University in Winnipeg, where he studied with David Klassen. He also went to volleyball camp for a couple of weeks in the summers of his tween years, but his vertical definitely isn’t what it used to be.
Nolan’s recent exploits have largely concerned the repertoire of the Baroque masters, especially J.S. Bach. 2023 has seen Nolan travel to Boston and San Francisco to perform with Emmanuel Music and American Bach Soloists, respectively in several different cantatas. Nolan also stepped in for a last minute engagement with the Winnipeg Baroque Festival’s performance of the St. John Passion with Kathleen Allen conducting the Pacific Baroque Orchestra. Not to be outdone, Nolan has also been performing the works of Handel, including his debut with the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra as Oronte in Alcina. Nolan’s Winnipeg opera exploits will continue this year with his debut in Li Keur: Riel’s Heart of the North, the first Indigenous-led operatic mainstage production in Canadian history being presented by Manitoba Opera in November 2023. This project, under the guidance of librettist Dr. Suzanne Steele and music by Neil Weisensel and Alex Kusturok, brings the story of Manitoba’s founder into a 21st century context, and explores his legacy along with themes of reconciliation and cultural resilience.
A participant in the 2021 Digital Emerging Artists Program with Manitoba Opera, Nolan made company debuts during the pandemic with COSA Canada (Mr. Miggles in Caryl and Ross’ The Shop Girl), Good Mess Opera Theatre (Mosca’s aria from John Musto’s Volpone), and stepping in as Nerone for the University of Manitoba Opera Theatre’s production of L’incoronazione di Poppea. On the concert stage, Nolan’s recent highlights have included soloist debuts with the Regina Symphony Orchestra and the Canzona chamber choir in Handel’s Messiah under the baton of Gordon Gerrard, and the Winnipeg Singers under the direction of Yuri Klaz performing Tchaikovsky’s Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom and Handel’s Coronation Anthems.
Much of Nolan’s artistic energies in the last number of months have gone to Opera InReach, an educational collective dedicated to instilling a passion for opera engagement and creation among future generations with an eye towards equity, diversity, inclusivity, justice, and accessibility. Nolan serves as the organization’s Provincial Coordinator for their Manitoba chapter, and their work has included a collaboration with Against the Grain Theatre called the Messiah Project to produce a performance of the “Hallelujah” chorus with the Mennonite Collegiate Institute Concert Choir as part of Against the Grain’s award-winning Messiah/Complex.
To donate to Opera InReach’s mission, follow this link to find their crowdfunding materials here!
Nolan as the lovelorn prospector Matt in Henry Mollicone’s The Face on the Barroom Floor with the Little Opera Company of Winnipeg, 2019.
Other career highlights have included appearances with the Little Opera Company of Winnipeg performing as Larry and Matt in Henry Mollicone’s chamber opera The Face on the Barroom Floor back in the fall of 2019. That year also saw Nolan assume the title role in Handel’s Acis and Galatea with the University of Victoria Voice Ensemble, under the direction of Isaiah Bell and musical leadership of Larry Beckwith. He can guarantee that he will never be in a production with more red plastic balls than that one.
Nolan’s 2019 summer was a full one, spent in development programs with St. Andrews Opera Workshop (Roméo - Roméo et Juliette) and Against the Grain Theatre’s Summer Modern Intensive production, This is Prophetic! (Bégearss - Ghosts of Versailles, Earl of Essex - Gloriana). He also completed a European tour of Spain and Finland as a chorister with the Winnipeg Singers where the choir captured the Grand Prix at the Golden Voices of Barcelona International Vocal Festival. Nolan cannot claim any part in the choir’s victory; they were already obscenely good before he jumped on the bandwagon.
Nolan as a heartbroken Valère in Kirke Mechem’s Tartuffe at Opera NUOVA in Edmonton, 2018.
On the concert stage, Nolan appeared this past season with the University of Victoria Orchestra as a soloist for Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy and Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms, as well as the UVic Wind Symphony and Voice Ensembles as the tenor soloist in Kurt Weill’s Berliner Requiem. Nolan also appeared in two performances with the Victoria Baroque Players in their 2017/2018 season as a soloist in the cantatas of J.S. Bach, and as the tenor soloist in the Victoria Philharmonic Choir’s performance of Puccini’s Messa di Gloria. Somewhere in that time, there was a couple of graduating recitals, delightful seniors’ residence gigs… honestly, this whole journey’s been just one incredible blur.
Nolan ascends into the heavens on a giant beanstalk in front of an audience of young library-goers in the children’s opera Jack and the Beanstalk with Manitoba UNDERGROUND Opera, 2018.
Nolan was privileged to be a part of the workshop process for Maxime Goulet’s new children’s opera, The Flight of the Hummingbird. A co-production between Pacific Opera Victoria and Vancouver Opera, the production is based on the well-known indigenous parable that is rooted in Haida culture. The libretto was written by Barry Gilson and Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas, who also authored the best-selling Haida-manga book telling the story of the courageous hummingbird Dukdukdiya. Nolan played Taan/Tooth the bear in the production’s second and third workshop sessions in May and November of 2019.
In 2018, Nolan played the titular character in John Davies’ children’s opera, Jack and the Beanstalk with Manitoba UNDERGROUND Opera, which toured across libraries in the Winnipeg Public Library system. In addition, Nolan performed leading roles as a part of Opera NUOVA’s 20th anniversary season in Edmonton, appearing as Jack in Into the Woods and Valère in Kirke Mechem’s Tartuffe.
An avid chorister, Nolan is active in all of Winnipeg’s professional ensembles, including Dead of Winter, Canzona, the Winnipeg Singers and Polycoro. Nolan also sits on the board of Dead of Winter and with the Women’s Musical Club of Winnipeg.
Nolan performs at donor event in the Laudamus Auditorium at Canadian Mennonite University, 2017.
When he isn’t singing, Nolan still finds himself immersed in the world of music. He moonlights as a drummer in a variety of bands, including with Kenzie Jane and Two Crows for Comfort, playing different styles of music, from R&B to folk to rock. You can also sometimes hear Nolan’s silent contributions (and occasionally not-silent contributions) to CBC Manitoba, where he works as an associate technical producer for their local radio shows, Information Radio, Radio Noon, and Up to Speed, and the Weekend Morning Show. Nolan also curates a weekly classical music column that airs nationally across the CBC Radio One network, where he talks about everything from the birthday of the saxophone to the connections between opera and Oppenheimer!
Nolan enjoys spending quiet evenings on a back deck or else catching the ball game on TV (doesn’t really matter what kind of ball, if any - he will probably have an ill-informed opinion on the subject). You should join him sometime - either on the deck or in the audience.
“Where might I find myself in an audience watching Nolan?”, you might ask. Well, you can visit his Upcoming Engagements page to learn more!
