In a musical world ill-suited to the "Renaissance man," Dr. GEORGE SKIPWORTH's career has proven an exception to the rule. Following early international careers as a concert pianist and singer, he has maintained an unceasing itinerary of symphonic and operatic conducting engagements, seminars, festivals and workshops in the United States, Canada, Europe, Russia and Ukraine. These appearances have included numerous premieres of his symphonic, choral, instrumental and vocal compositions in major musical centres.
Concentrated studies with mentors such as Jon Robertson, Sergiu Commissiona, Kurt Masur, Jose Ariel Rambaldi and Helmuth Rilling led Maestro Skipworth to his first symphonic engagements in Seattle, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Memphis, Nashville, Baltimore, New York and Washington, D.C. A subsequent tour of Russia and Ukraine included performances for the Pushkin and Glinka National Arts Centres of Moscow, the National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine in Kiev, the Kharkiv Philharmonic, the Volgograd Symphony Orchestra and the National Prokofiev Conservatory Orchestra of Donetsk. In 1993, he conducted the world premiere of his "Intimations of Immortality" with the Volgograd Symphony, followed by "Mamayev Kurgan" with the UCLA Philharmonia in Los Angeles. The Baltimore premiere of "Requiem Mass" was followed by Memphis, Las Vegas and Vancouver premiere performances of "Te Deum," "The Seven Last Words," "The Chicago Songs" and "Five Poems". Nearing completion are the third, fourth and fifth symphonies, "Stalingrad," "Oregon" and "Archangel".
Dr. Skipworth's formal studies were taken at Whitman College, the Peabody Conservatory of Music, the Juilliard School and UCLA. He has authored articles and full-length texts such as "The Unendowed Pianist," "Musical Composition and Mental Disorder" and "Mahler's 'Fifth'; Evolution of Editions, Compositional Process and Conductor Study". For two decades, he served as Director of Phoenix Artist Management and Phoenix Management West. His compositions and texts have been published under UMI, Rosslare and Lion & Lamb Publications.
Maestro Skipworth currently resides in Perugia, Italy, where he teaches at the Umbra Institute, composes and appears as a guest conductor on the European continent. He is under the management of Rosslare Arts International.
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