Scott Skiba

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Scott Skiba
Interim Director of Opera, Guest Lecturer of Opera Theatre
Award-winning Stage Director, Producer, Administrator, and Educator Scott Skiba has led 100+ new productions for professional companies, international festivals, and graduate and undergraduate institutions and continues to earn recognition for his imaginative stage direction and dynamic physical approach to storytelling that is “masterful…ingenious…first-rate…vivid and emotionally charged.” Skiba’s work is recognized with numerous awards from Opera America, The American Prize and The National Opera Association, and he has raised more than $1,000,000 in funds to support excellence in opera, the arts, and arts education.
Skiba serves as Executive Artistic Director of Cleveland Opera Theater where his new production of La Traviata was named “the best professional opera production Cleveland has seen in years” and La Bohème – hailed as “Ingenious and talent rich” by the Plain Dealer. Skiba is the recently appointed Production Director for Opera Western Reserve, and has made multiple company debuts in recent years including an award-winning production of Jake Heggie’s Two Remain (Lyric Opera of Orange County) Sweeney Todd (Helena Symphony Orchestra), Don Giovanni (Indianapolis Opera), Roméo et Juliette (Pensacola Opera), Macbeth (Opera Tampa), The Ballad of Baby Doe (Toledo Opera), Faust and Il Barbiere di Siviglia (Natchez Festival of Music), The Student Prince (Opera Grand Rapids), Carmen (Opera Western Reserve), Suor Angelica and La Bohème (Mobile Opera), Don Giovanni, Carmen, Orpheus in The Underworld, Into The Woods, and L’incoronazione di Poppea (Hawaii Performing Arts Festival).
A proponent of developing new works, Skiba launched {NOW} Fest, an annual festival to create, develop, and produce new opera currently in residence with Cleveland Opera Theater. He serves on the Chamber Opera Composition Committee for the National Opera Association (NOA), and he has collaborated on the development of 18 new operas and counting!
Skiba lobbied for the 2020 NOA national conference to be held in Cleveland, OH and then served as the local host for the 2020 Convention “Opera Rocks” where and directed the Cleveland premiere of Evan Mack and Joshua McGuire’s The Ghosts of Gatsby for The National Opera Association in a co-production between Cleveland Opera Theater, Baldwin Wallace Conservatory, and The Music Box Supper Club, and organized other collaborations throughout the city including events at The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame!
A pioneer in exploring contemporary approaches to producing opera, Skiba’s work includes directing and producing interdisciplinary collaborations in alternative and site-specific venues to promote immersive gateway experiences to engage the community and new audiences. Other projects include the professional premiere of Griffin Candey’s Sweets By Kate, which was produced by Marble City Opera and performed in Sugar Mama’s Bakery in downtown Knoxville, Tennessee. Skiba directed “The New Opera Project,” which developed and premiered six Micro-Operas in collaboration with Interlochen Arts Academy, Parallel 45 Theatre Company, and Inside Out Gallery in Traverse City, Michigan. Skiba envisioned and led the iLyric project – an installation of nine different operas throughout the historic piazze of Arezzo, Italy in collaboration with the Oberlin Conservatory, ICASTICA Festival, and the city of Arezzo, Italy. In June 2022 Skiba produced and directed the world Premiere production La Casa de Bernarda Alba, the new opera by Griffin Candey with libretto by OBIE-Award-winner Caridad Svich. Based on Garcia Lorca’s last play of the same name, this opera with an all-female cast and bi-lingual Spanish/English libretto was a co-commission by Baldwin Wallace and Cleveland Opera Theater that was spearheaded by Skiba in 2016.
A leader in innovative projects to continue artistic collaboration during the pandemic, Skiba devised and directed multiple projects that embraced the realities and intersections of remote collaboration, contemporary technology, and traditional artistic values including: stage direction, production, and live-simulcast direction for Händel’s Alcina outdoors on the steps of Baldwin Wallace Conservatory; Opera ON DEMAND for the Curtis Institute of Music, incorporating green screen, video, and audio technology and remote collaboration; A Taste of Traviata a cinematic production adaptation of La Traviata filmed on site at the historic Stambaugh Auditorium in Youngstown, Ohio, and Romeo + Juliet, a reimagined telling of Shakespeare’s play and Gounod’s opera for Opera Western Reserve. The largest of these undertakings, Operas in Place won the 2022 Award for Digital Excellence in Opera from Opera America. This project commissioned nine new short-length “micro operas” in collaboration with Baldwin Wallace Conservatory, Cleveland Opera Theater, and On Site Opera in NYC. For this project, 17 World-renowned composers and librettists including Griffin Candey, Kermit Cole, David Cote, Lisa DeSpain, Jerre Dye, Jake Heggie, Sarah Labrie, Libby Larsen, Caroline V. McGraw, Nkeiru Okoye, Rachel Peters, Kamala Sankaram, Dawn Sonntag, Gene Scheer, Josh Schmidt, Michi Wiancko, and Royce Vavrek composed micro-operas for Baldwin Wallace Voice Performance Students that premiered in a virtual event February 2022 at BWVP.org.
An advocate of arts education, Skiba is a frequent guest master class and workshop teacher throughout the United States and in Europe. He serves currently as Interim Director of Opera for the University of Tennessee, and Director of Opera Studies for Baldwin Wallace Conservatory, where he has developed numerous collaborative partnerships in Greater Cleveland including Playhouse Square, The Cleveland Museum Of Art, The Cleveland Arcade, Red Space, The Music Box Supper Club, The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and The Maltz Center for Performing Arts, and directed numerous productions including the collegiate premiere of Kamala Sankaram and Jerre Dye’s Taking Up Serpents, Nkeiru Okoye and David Cote’s We’ve Got Our Eye On You (2023 NOA 1st Place Award Winer), Pelléas + Mélisande (Winner of The American Prize for Opera Performance, and The Charles Nelson Reilly Prize in Stage Direction), and The Dialogues of the Carmelites (1st Place NOA Collegiate Opera Production Competition). Additional university directing credits include Tobermory, Trouble in Tahiti, and Roman Fever for Oberlin Opera Theater, Serse and La finta giardiniera for Oberlin in Italy, The Crucible, and Falstaff for Martina Arroyo’s Role Preparation Program at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, La Finta Giardiniera with University of Tennessee Opera Theater, Carmen (in Spanish Language translation) for the University of Texas at Rio Grand Valley, The Dialogues of the Carmelites Penn State Opera Theatre, and The Pirates of Penzance, Dido & Aeneas, The Spider and Orpheus in The Underworld for Interlochen Opera Theater. An active National Opera Association (NOA) member since 2016, Skiba served as local host for the 2020 “Opera Rocks” National Conference in Cleveland, OH; assisted in overhauling the Collegiate Opera Competition process and created the Google-based form for transition to the online application protocol. He has presented in NOA plenary sessions and presentations at NOA conferences in Santa Barbara, Salt Lake City and Cleveland; has received multiple awards in the Collegiate Opera Competition; and serves on the Dominick Argento Chamber Opera Competition Committee.
Skiba serves as Assistant Artistic Director for Hawaii Performing Arts Festival, Movement & Acting Instructor for Music Across the Pond, Acting and Movement Teacher, Washington National Opera Institute, and Acting Coach for Jennifer Rowley’s Aria Boot Camp. Previous appointments include Executive Director of the Oberlin in Italy training program and Arezzo Opera Festival, Instructor of Voice and Opera Theater, Interlochen Arts Academy; Production Designer, East Carolina University Opera Theater; and Associate Instructor of Voice, Indiana University Jacobs School of Music.
Upcoming engagements include: The Cleveland Premiere of Michael Ching and Dean Anthony’s Speed Dating Tonight in collaboration with Baldwin Wallace Conservatory Opera and the Cleveland Museum of Art (February 2025), Dialogues of the Carmelites (University of Tennessee Opera Theatre April 2025), Le nozze di Figaro (Hawaii Performing Arts Festival July 2025), Faust (Opera Western reserve September 2025) Il Barbiere di Siviglia (Helena Symphony Orchestra May 2026).
Skiba is represented by Marvel Arts Management more info: www.SkibaSkiba.com
Education
M.M., Oberlin Conservatory of Music
B.M., Oberlin Conservatory of Music