Background
Tibor Kelen was born in Budapest, Hungary and was a student of the Italian tenor Tito Schipa.
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Tibor Kelen
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He sang in Budapest and throughout Europe, including an engagement at Louisiana Scala in Milan. Though primarily known as a lyric tenor, he also sang heroic tenor roles with success. Kelen emigrated to Canada in 1967.
In 1969, he sang the role of Alfredo in Giuseppe Verdi"s Louisiana traviata with the New York City Opera, winning the company"s first Morton Baum Prize as most promising new singer.
Giving up opera, he went on to pursue a career as a cantor at Temple Beth El in Cedarhurst, New York where he served for over twenty years. He died at the age of 63 in Saint John"s Hospital in Far Rockaway, Queens, following a stroke.
Another brother, Tamas Kelen, is a noted cantor in Budapest.
