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Mezzo-soprano, voice pedagogue, and stage director Cynthia Skelley-Wohlschlager, DMA is a member of the xxxxÊÓƵ voice and opera faculty and Associate Artistic Director and Director of Young Artist Programs for Nightingale Opera Theatre. Praised for her dramatic depth and vocal versatility, she has performed extensively both internationally and domestically in opera, oratorio, and in recital. Role highlights include Mrs. DeRocher in Dead Man Walking, Alma March in Little Women, Lola/Lucia in Cavalleria Rusticana, Madame de Croissy in Dialogues des Carmélites, and Marthe in Faust. Wohlschlager has been described as applying commanding intensity to every line, with the ability to act and sing powerfully as well as act with sly humor. Awards include the O.D. Taliaferro Opera Award, the Max Berman Award for Outstanding Vocal Performance and the Dewey and Mary Gilley Award for Distinguished Opera, Tuesday Musical Competition, Doug Davis Composition and Performance Award, and Pi Kappa Lambda Honor Society. 

Highlights from recent work in stage direction includes Two Remain (Jake Heggie), staged in both Melbourne, Australia and Ohio in a cross-cultural collaboration; Cendrillon (Pauline Viardot); If I Were You (Heggie); and Little Women (Adamo). She has also directed standards such as Le Nozze di Figaro, La Finta Giardiniera, The Medium, Die Zauberflöte, and Die Fledermaus. A champion of new works and living composers, Dr. Wohlschlager has both sung and staged premieres of a variety of chamber operas and song cycles. Her production of Beneath Suspicion by Jesse Ayers was a semi-finalist for The American Prize. Her directing aesthetic is grounded in strong collaborative practice, musical integrity, and dramaturgical clarity, with a commitment to storytelling that is musically informed, socially relevant, and dramatically compelling. She has directed more than 35 full productions across the U.S. and internationally, with repertoire spanning canonical masterworks and contemporary opera.