Biography

Bass-baritone Philip Skinner graduated from Northwestern University and received his master’s degree and Performance Certificate from Indiana University. Mr. Skinner has recently performed with the Metropolitan Opera in Cyrano de Bergerac, Opera Parallèle in Jonathan Dove’s Flight, the Pacific Symphony in Aïda, and Charlottesville Opera in Allen Shearer’s Middlemarch in Spring. He made his San Francisco Symphony debut in 1989.

Mr. Skinner’s long association with San Francisco Opera began in 1985 and he has given more than 380 performances in fifty-five productions with the company. His international credits include Rigotetto with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, The Tales of Hoffman with the Victoria State Opera in Melbourne, The Magic Flute with Vancouver Opera, and Salome with La Monnaie in Brussels. He also performed with the Houston Grand Opera in The Marriage of Figaro and the Four Villains.

In the concert hall, Mr. Skinner has performed the Verdi Requiem at Carnegie Hall with the Masterworks Chorale, and in Europe with the Budapest Symphony Orchestra. He sang Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 at the Hollywood Bowl, Beethoven’s Missa solemnis with Kent Nagano and the Berkeley Symphony, Haydn’s Lord Nelson Mass at the Spoleto Festival in Italy, and Handel’s Messiah, Mozart’s Requiem, Haydn’s The Creation, and other concert pieces with ensembles including the Düsseldorf Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra, and others. 

(November 2017)