Kevin Skelton has a multifaceted career as a performer, director, choreographer, teacher, and scholar. Equally at home on the concert and operatic stage Kevin specializes in seventeenth-century music, the Bach Evangelist roles, and experimental music theatre. Kevin has performed with some of the world’s finest early music ensembles including Collegium Vocale Gent, L’Arpeggiata, and Concerto Palatino and in numerous theatres and festivals throughout the world including Teatro La Fenice, La Monnaie, Aix-en-Provence, Opéra Royal de Versailles, and the early music festivals in Boston and Utrecht.
In recent years Kevin has begun a new initiative exploring the possibilities of integrating classical singing and contemporary dance. His unique facility combining voice and movement has been showcased in productions of the Netherlands Reisopera, Veenfabriek, Opera Atelier, Sasha Waltz & Guests, and the Dutch breakdance company ISH. Kevin has produced numerous videos and live performances under the auspices of his own company ātmā having performed at the Operadagen Rotterdam, Theater aan het Vrijthof in Maastricht, and Festival Les Nuits de Septembre (Festival de Wallonie). Kevin is currently exploring new performing practices applicable to the training, creation, direction, and performance of integrated music theatre.
On the opera stage Kevin recently performed in Monteverdi’s Orfeo at the Bergen International Festival, The Play of Daniel with the Toronto Consort, Caldara’s Dafne at Teatro La Fenice, Purcell’s Fairy Queen at the Hokutopia International Music Festival in Japan, and Charpentier’s Medée with Opera Atelier in Toronto and Versailles. This season Kevin will perform in Monteverdi’s Il Ritorno d’Ulisse with Opera Atelier, and Charpentier’s La descente d’Orphée aux Enfers with Ensemble Desmarest in Poland, Austria, and France.
Upcoming and recent concert appearances include the Budapest Festival Orchestra, Nieuwe Philharmonie Utrecht, Utrecht and Timisoara Early Music Festivals, Vancouver Early Music, the Toronto Consort, and several projects with BachPlus, Margaretha Consort, and the Nederlandse Bachvereniging in Belgium and the Netherlands.
The recipient of numerous awards and scholarships, including grants from the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council, Kevin has completed graduate programmes in voice, conducting, musicology, and choreography having studied at the University of Toronto, Indiana University, Oxford University, and the contemporary dance school PARTS.