Carl Tanner knew he had a gift. He could sing. Little did the country boy from Virginia know that this gift would take him all over the globe some day.

The Arlington native came from a working class family. After high school, he worked at odd jobs. Then went to college and earned a degree in performance. But, he was not comfortable with a career in music. How could he earn a living in the arts?

After college, he moved into a field he thought would be more stable: truck driving. He enjoyed driving, but found that it didn’t make enough money. When an opportunity came to work as a bounty hunter, he grabbed it. In two years, he worked on 178 cases.

Being a bounty hunter is dangerous. He never knew what a case would bring. In the last case he took, the person he was chasing jumped to his death.

After such a nightmarish experience, Tanner was ready for something else. In 1990, he quit his job and headed for New York. He went to find work. He wasn’t particularly interested in music, but that’s where he ended up!

Once he became serious about opera, he took an apprenticeship with the Santa Fe Opera Company. Then, his career taken off. Now 43, Tanner has seen the world. He has performed in New York, Japan, Italy, Germany, and elsewhere. He has taken on many roles and performed as a soloist.

We never know where life will take us. Sometimes it takes us back where we started and it turns out to be an opportunity of a life time.

There’s more on Carl Tanner at his website: Carl Tanner