David Ronis

About

David Ronis serves as the inaugural Karen K. Bishop Director of Opera at the Mead Witter School of Music at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. A specialist in teaching integrative acting and movement techniques for singers, he brings extensive professional experience from roles as visiting professor and faculty at Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College/CUNY, Hofstra University, and Wagner College. As a performer, he sang over 50 operatic roles with more than 30 companies in Europe, Asia, and the United States, appearing as soloist at New York's Carnegie Hall, Avery Fisher Hall, and Alice Tully Hall. He recently completed teacher certification in the Michael Chekhov acting technique through the Great Lakes Michael Chekhov Consortium and is a frequent master class teacher and clinician. His directing work has received 13 National Opera Association Production Competition awards, and he is the 2024 winner of The American Prize in Directing (The Charles Nelson Reilly Prize) for his work in the 2023 production of La traviata with the University of Wisconsin-Madison opera.

Education & Qualifications

B.F.A. from Purchase College of the State University of New York; M.A.L.S. (Master of Arts in Liberal Studies) in Opera Studies from Empire State College/SUNY; studied at the Conservatoire Américain in Fontainebleau, France under Nadia Boulanger; Anthony Gishford Award recipient to attend the Britten-Pears School in Aldeburgh, England

Teaching Styles