David Ronis, the Karen K. Bishop Director of Opera at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, previously taught at Queens College/CUNY, Hofstra University, and Wagner College. Recently awarded The American Prize’s second place Charles Nelson Reilly Award for Opera Directing, he is a nine-time National Opera Association Production Competition winner. He received his BFA from Purchase College of the State University of New York. He has guest directed at opera and theater companies throughout the U.S. and has taught at the Druid City Opera Workshop, at AIMS in Graz, Austria, and at La Lingua della Lirica in Novafeltria, Italy. A specialist in teaching integrative acting and movement techniques for singers, Mr. Ronis has given master classes and workshops at universities throughout the country and is a certified teacher of the Michael Chekhov Acting Technique. As a performer, he sang over 50 operatic roles with companies all over the world, concertized extensively, toured nationally in Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, and appeared in independent films and nationally televised commercials.
A word from Susan Cook, Director of the Mead Witter School of Music:
The School of Music is proud to have David Ronis as the tenured, inaugural holder of the Karen K. Bishop Director of University Opera endowed professorship. David has reinvigorated our opera program through his thought-provoking and award-winning productions of operatic standards, lesser-known repertory and through his own engaging musico-dramatic creations.