Professional Biography

Following early careers in the U.S. and abroad as a concert pianist and singer, Dr. George Skipworth maintained an unceasing itinerary of symphonic and operatic conducting engagements, seminars, festivals and workshops in the United States, Canada, Europe, Russia and Ukraine, including numerous premieres of his symphonic compositions. Concentrated studies with Jon Robertson and Jose Rambaldi led him to appearances in Seattle, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Memphis, Nashville, Baltimore, New York and Washington, D.C. He has coached with Sergiu Commissiona of the Baltimore Symphony and New York City Opera, Kurt Masur of the New York Philharmonic and Henry Holt of Seattle Opera. After several years of operatic conducting, Skipworth toured Russia and Ukraine,performing in Moscow’s Pushkin and Glinka Museums, with the National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine in Kiev, the Kharkiv Philharmonic, the National Prokofiev Conservatory in Donetsk, the Kiev Conservatory and the Volgograd Symphony Orchestra, which premiered his "Intimations of Immortality" for soprano, chorus and orchestra. As a resident of Perugia and Florence, Italy, he served as Principal Conductor for the Sinfonia Dell’Arte, and taught for the Umbra Institute and Accademia Dell’Arte. In the summer of 2003, he conducted a series of new works at the Bloch Festival in Newport, and the following year, he opened the Dublin International Symphonic Festival with Mahler’s ‘Fifth’ Symphony, and his own “Four Irish Songs for Soprano and Orchestra.” In 2006, he conducted three concerts for the Aegean Verdi Festival in Greece, including “Scheherazade,” Verdi's "Orietta di Lesbos" employing the original alternate libretto to Gianna D'Arco, and the world premiere of his “Isis” for soloists and orchestra. He has recently premiered his own works in recital with his wife, Barbara Wester Skipworth, at Harvard, Wellesley, and Syracuse. They have performed and lectured together for, among other organizations, the Dante Alighieri Society of Massachusetts. At the request of the Ernst Bacon Society, their recorded live concert in New York was archived in the performance library of the American Art Song Society.

Dr. Skipworth’s formal studies were taken at Whitman College, the Peabody Conservatory of Music and UCLA. He has lectured on articles and full-length texts such as “The Neglected Pianist; Guide to the Late Bloomer,” “Musical Composition and Mental Disorder” and “Mahler’s ‘Fifth’; Evolution of Editions, Compositional Process and Conductor Study.” For two decades, he directed Phoenix Artist Management East, Chiloquin Arts Management, Rosslare Arts International and Lion & Lamb Choral Publishers.

As a vocalist, he was a regional prizewinner for the Metropolitan Opera and, as a bass-baritone, has sung thirty five principal roles and much of the concert/recital repertoire. Serving on voice faculties here and overseas, he produced several regional and national finalists and prizewinners. In the 1990s, Skipworth served as conductor on staff with Opera Memphis and Nevada Opera, was Principal Conductor for Tennessee Opera Theater and Director of Choirs at Crichton College. As a pianist, and as a role and technical coach for young singers, he has worked for The Metropolitan Opera, New York City Opera, Chicago Opera and the companies of Baltimore, Detroit, and Indianapolis. In 2000, Dr. Skipworth served as the American judge for the international choral festival composers' competition of the Fondazione Guido d'Arezzo. In Dr. Skipworth’s early years as a pianist, he recorded Liszt’s B minor Sonata, the Beethoven op. 110, the Images, Book I, of Debussy, the Bach G major partita in live concert and premieres of several American composers. He came to Lewis & Clark in 2001.