David Grabarkewitz is a director, educator and writer with undergraduate and graduate degrees from The University of Hartford’s Hartt Conservatory of Music and The London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts. The New York Times called his staging of la Boheme “…the best in New York!” and New York magazine calls his work “…inspired direction.” In addition to serving as resident director for The New York City Opera at Lincoln Center from 1995-2010, he also served as Artistic and General Director of El Paso Opera from 2009-2015. His staging of Madame Butterfly for PBS’ Live From Lincoln Center won the 2008 PrimeTime Emmy Award for Best Live Performance, Music or Dance. He directed the world premieres of several musicals and operas including Twelfth Night for The University of California at Santa Barbara and Abraham’s Land for Seattle’s Theater of Possibility. Also premieres of Der Gelbe Klang for the El Paso Museum of Art and The Death of Lincoln at CLeveland State University. He created the New Opera Workshop in 2013 premiering Der Gelbe Klang and the new musical version of How Green Was My Valley by Roger Ames and Elizabeth Bassine. With Ames he also founded the Children’s Opera Workshop, uniting 32 young people from both Mexico and the United States to create new works of musical theater in both Spanish and English. An established educator teaching acting and directing in ensemble style he studied acting under Brigid Panet at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art and Viewpoints with Anne Bogart. He served on the faculty of The Hartt Conservatory of Music’s Musical Theater Department as well as directing the opera workshop program for The University of California at Santa Barbara in their 2015 and 2016 winter terms. He has directed workshops for The New England Conservatory of Music, Louisiana State University and The Boston Conservatory of Music, and has conducted master classes at Juilliard, Hartt, The Boston Conservatory, The University of Texas at El Paso, Universidad Autónoma de Ciudad Juárez, the Bangkok International School and The Kingdom of Bhutan’s Royal Academy of Performing Arts. His new English translations of la Boheme, the Magic Flute and Countess Maritza have premiered at the Santa Fe Opera, the New York City Opera and El Paso Opera. In 2013 he traveled to the Kingdom of Bhutan with The University of Texas at El Paso and members of the Smithsonian’s Folklife Festival to produce the first Western opera in that kingdom, Acis and Galatea. In 2014 he co-produced Robert Ashley’s final work, Vidas Perfectas, which premiered at the 2014 Whitney Museum of Art Biennial and in Marfa, Texas. His production of West Side Story with members of the Broadway revival cast was produced in 2011 reset to El Paso and Ciudad Juarez during the 2007-2011 border violence, with the permission of the creators of the work and their estates. He has received grants and commissions from the National Endowment for the Arts, The Texas Commission on the Arts, the Getty Foundation, the Brown Foundation, the Hunt Family Foundation and the Huthsteiner Trust. In 2022 Mr. Grabarkewitz accepted a position as Director of The Borderland Arts Initiative, a new 35,000 square foot fine and performing arts complex in El Paso which will serve West Texas, South New Mexico and Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. The Mission of the Initiative is “to cultivate community through education, performance, exhibition and the development of artistic expression.”