Kevin Skelton
- Academy Research Fellow, Research Institute, Research Institute
- kevin.skelton@uniarts.fi
Publications in the research database (1)
Introduction
Kevin Skelton has a multifaceted career performing, directing, choreographing, teaching, and researching. Equally at home on the concert and operatic stage, Kevin specializes in seventeenth-century music and experimental music theatre. Kevin has performed with some of the world’s finest early music ensembles including Collegium Vocale Gent, L’Arpeggiata, Taverner Consort, 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.
Kevin’s creative and academic work explores the possibilities of integrating the performing arts. His unique facility combining voice and movement has been showcased in productions of Opera Atelier (Canada), Boston Early Music Festival (USA), the Nederlandse Reisopera, Veenfabriek (Netherlands), Silbersee (Netherlands), Sasha Waltz & Guests (Germany), Dance Company Nanine Linning (Germany), SPAC (Japan), Company Derashinera (Japan), and the Dutch breakdance company ISH. Kevin has produced numerous videos and live performances under the auspices of his own company ātmā performing at the Watershed Festival (Canada), Operadagen Rotterdam, Theater aan het Vrijthof in Maastricht, and Festival Les Nuits de Septembre (Festival de Wallonie). He has led workshops in integrative performing training around the world including the contemporary dance school PARTS, the Centre for Opera Studies in Italy, the Shizuoka Performing Arts Centre in Japan, and Zurich University of the Arts.
Operatic highlights from his career include Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo with the Nederlandse Reisopera, Berio’s Sinfonia with the Vlaamse Opera, Charpentier’s La descente d’Orphée aux Enfers in Poland and Romania, Monteverdi’s Il Ritorno d’Ulisse in Toronto and Tokyo, Charpentier’s Medée with Opera Atelier in Toronto and Versailles, and new creations with Silbersee, Muziektheater Transparant, LOD, and the Greek National Opera. Notable concert appearances have included performances with the Nederlandse Bachvereniging, Budapest Festival Orchestra, Nieuwe Philharmonie Utrecht, Weser-Renaissance Bremen, Finnish Baroque Orchestra, Antwerp Symphony Orchestra, Timisoara Early Music Festival, the Toronto Consort, and Early Music Vancouver.
Upcoming and recent projects include Searching Centre with ātmā in Italy, Cavalli’s La Doriclea with Ensemble Nylandia in Helsinki, Weill’s Die sieben Todsünden with the Norwegian Radio Orchestra, and Monteverdi’s 1610 Vespers in Germany, Norway, and the Netherlands. Additional concert appearances have included the Finnish Baroque Orchestra, Oslo Philharmonic, and several projects with Ars Nova Copenhagen, det Norske Solistkor, and the Margaretha Consort throughout Europe.
Kevin has received numerous awards and scholarships, including grants from the Canada Council for the Arts, Ontario Arts Council, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, and the Research Council of Finland. In addition to his PhD investigating transdisciplinary practices and pedagogy in performing arts higher education, Kevin has also 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. He is currently an Academy Research Fellow at University of the Arts Helsinki.