David Lefkowich

Emcee

Photo by Michael Yeshion.

David Lefkowich is an accomplished stage director and fight choreographer and has enjoyed success with different companies including the Metropolitan Opera, Teatre alla Scala, San Francisco Opera, New York City Opera, Minnesota Opera, and Glimmerglass Opera.  Upcoming directing engagements include a site-specific Acis and Galatea for Out of the Box Opera in the catacombs of a former Pillsbury Mill in Minneapolis (May 2019), an immersive Pagliacci at Boston Lyric Opera (September 2019), Tosca at Annapolis Opera (November 2019), and Pagliacci at Opera Colorado (February 2020).

​Recent directing engagements include Don Giovanni at L’Opéra de Montréal, Don Giovanni, Idomeneo, Le Nozze di Figaro and L’Histoire du Soldat at the Ravinia Music Festival with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Maestro James Conlon. David also directed and choreographed L’Histoire du Soldat at the Juilliard School, with Maestro Conlon.  David made his European debut directing Le Portrait de Manon at the Gran Teatre Liceu in Barcelona and followed with The Rake’s Progress at La Monnaie in Brussels.  Other engagements include directing and choreographing new productions of La Traviata (Austin Opera, Opera Birmingham, San Francisco Opera, Lake George Opera), Carmen (Fort Worth Opera, Anchorage Opera), Lucia de Lammermoor (Eugene Opera), Simon Boccanegra (Kentucky Opera), La Bohème, La fille du Regiment and Acis and Galatea (Madison Opera), Salome (Minnesota Opera), Roméo et Juliette (Florida Grand Opera, Minnesota Opera, Virginia Opera, Opera Tampa, Seagle Music Colony), Tosca (Boston Lyric Opera), Cosi Fan Tutte (Opera Saratoga), Le Portrait de Manon (Glimmerglass Opera), and Il Trovatore (New Orleans Opera, Fort Worth Opera).

​David was thrilled to fight direct the world premieres of Philip Glass’s Appomattox at San Francisco Opera, Miss Lonelyhearts at Juilliard, La fanciulla del west at New York City Opera, and the New York Off-Broadway run of A Clockwork Orange.  David is a guest artist and performs master classes at several Young Artist programs and universities including the San Francisco Opera Center Adler Fellowship Program, Atelier Lyrique at L’Opéra de Montréal, McGill School of Music and Ithaca College.

​A graduate from Northwestern University with a Bachelor’s of Science in Theatre, David has a certificate from École Jacques-Lecoq in Paris, France.

David served as the Artistic Director of the Mill City Summer Opera in Minneapolis, Minnesota where he directed the annual summer offerings of Pagliacci, Barber of Seville, Tosca, Daughter of the Regiment, Sweeney Todd, and Maria de Buenos Aires.  Currently he is the Artistic Director of Out of the Box Opera in Minneapolis, a company dedicated to creating high-quality operatic experiences in site-specific locations, most notably with Diva Cage Match, an epic battle of voices, egos, and talent in a boxing gym.