David Ronis, recently appointed the inaugural Karen K. Bishop Director of University Opera, has maintained an active schedule in a multi-faceted career. Previously, he taught at the Aaron Copland School of Music, Queens College/CUNY, Hofstra University, and Wagner College. Mr. Ronis is a four-time National Opera Association Opera Production Award winner. The most recent of these was his 2014 production of Britten’s Albert Herring, for UW-Madison. He has also directed for the Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University, Crane School of Music at SUNY Potsdam, Queens Symphony Orchestra, After Dinner Opera, OSH Opera, and at Manhattan School of Music, as part of their annual “From Page to Stage” series. Mr. Ronis is the co-founder and co-director of the Baroque Opera Workshop at Queens College, and has been a faculty member at the Westchester Summer Vocal Institute, the Maryland Summer Center for the Arts, and La Lingua della Lirica in Novafeltria, Italy.

A specialist in teaching integrative acting and movement techniques for singers, Mr. Ronis is a frequent master class teacher and clinician. He has given master classes and workshops at Manhattan School of Music, Cincinnati College-Conservatory, the Seagle Colony, Opera New Jersey, Vassar College, Texas Christian University, University of Dayton, University of Evansville, Princeton University, and various chapters of the National Association of Teachers of Singing.

As a performer, he sang over 50 operatic roles with more than 30 companies in Europe, Asia, and the U.S. as well as appearing as soloist at New York’s Carnegie, Avery Fisher, and Alice Tully Halls. Mr. Ronis also performed nationally in both musical and spoken theater productions including Disney’s Beauty and the Beast. On camera, he appeared in independent and industrial films and was featured in nationally televised commercials and print advertisements.

Mr. Ronis received his B.F.A. degree from Purchase College of the State University of New York and the M.A.L.S. (Master of Arts in Liberal Studies) in Opera Studies, an interdisciplinary research degree, from Empire State College/SUNY. He also studied at the Conservatoire Américain in Fontainebleau, France, then under the direction of the legendary teacher, Nadia Boulanger. Additionally he received the Anthony Gishford Award to attend the Britten-Pears School in Aldeburgh, England, where he worked with the late Sir Peter Pears.