Fields of Study:
Director, Opera Studio; Voice

Degrees and Studies:
B.F.A., Purchase College S.U.N.Y.
M.A.L.S. (M.A. in Liberal Studies), Empire State College, S.U.N.Y.

Biographical Information:
David Ronis, stage director for the Queens College Opera Studio, maintains an active schedule in a multi-faceted career. A sought-after director, his 2009 and 2011 productions of Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo and Argento’s Postcard From Morocco for Queens College won first and third place, respectively, in the National Opera Association Opera Production Competition. Other recent productions include Suor Angelica, La Damoiselle Elue, The Magic Flute, Le Nozze di Figaro, and Dido and Aeneas at Queens College, Rigoletto for the Queens Symphony Orchestra, Così fan tutte for OSH Opera, and a portion of Gregg Wramage’s Death in Summer at Manhattan School of Music, part of their annual “From Page to Stage” series. Mr. Ronis is also the co-director of the Baroque Opera Workshop at Queens College as well as a faculty member at the Westchester Summer Vocal Institute.  In 2012, he guest directed From Berlin to Potsdam – A Kurt Weill Cabaret at the Crane School of Music, SUNY Potsdam.

A specialist in teaching integrative acting and movement techniques for singers, Mr. Ronis is a frequent master class teacher and clinician. He has recently given master classes and workshops at Manhattan School of Music, Cincinnati College-Conservatory, the Seagle Colony, New Jersey Opera Theater’s Young Artist Program, Vassar College, Texas Christian University, University of Dayton, and the Southern Louisiana Chapter of the National Association of Teachers of Singing.

As a performer, Mr. Ronis has sung over 50 character tenor operatic roles with more than 30 companies with opera companies in Nice, Hong Kong, Atlanta, Tulsa, Milwaukee, Salt Lake City, New Orleans, Houston, Louisville, Columbus, Tampa, Rochester, Greensboro, Grand Rapids, and the New York City Opera National Company, among others. He also performed in Leonard Bernstein's A Quiet Place/Trouble in Tahiti at La Scala Milan and the Vienna State Opera, with the composer conducting.

In concert, he has appeared as soloist at Carnegie, Avery Fisher and Alice Tully Halls, with L’Opéra Français de New York, Musica Sacra, and the Nationale Chorale as well as with the Milwaukee and New Haven Symphonies, at the Aspen Music Festival, and the Festival dei Due Mondi in Spoleto, Italy and Charleston, South Carolina. Mr. Ronis made his musical theater debut in the Los Angeles production of Disney's Beauty and the Beast, playing the roles of Monsieur D'Arque and Lumiere, the candlestick. On camera, he has appeared in independent and industrial films and been featured in nationally televised commercials and print advertisements.

Mr. Ronis received the 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.

email address:
daronis2@gmail.com

Web Site:
http://www.davidronis.com/