Arizona Opera Cast Members & Creatives

Ian Silverman is a stage director for all forms of music theater, from opera to musical theater to operetta, and creates productions that highlight and shift character focus to enhance the story, connect to the audience, and deliver a vivid personal experience. His own performance background as a singing actor, coupled with a practical knowledge of the totality of stagecraft, make his empathy for the performers’ work central to his process.

This fall, Ian will make debuts with Amarillo Opera and Opera Colorado, working on Papermoon Production’s Il Barbiere di Siviglia and Rigoletto, respectively. This winter, Silverman makes his directorial debut with Arizona Opera, remounting Francesca Zambello’s production of The Sound of Music. Further engagements will be announced shortly.

Silverman has worked in all forms of music theater, from rare operettas to golden age musicals to large scale grand opera. In addition to standard repertoire, Ian has extensive experience with new work and has worked on eleven world premiere productions. Ian also has experience working for film as both a director and video editor.

This past summer, Silverman returned to The Opera Theatre of Saint Louis assisting James Robinson on the world premiere of Tobias Picker’s Awakenings. Ian also returned to The Glimmerglass Festival to assist Francesca Zambello and Eric Sean Fogel on The Sound of Music, and Chloe Treat on a Double Bill featuring Kamala Sankaram’s Taking up Serpents and the world premiere of Damien Geter’s Holy Ground. Silverman has served on the directing staffs of Palm Beach Opera, Experiments in Opera, Opera Naples, The Ohio Light Opera, OnSite Opera, Brevard Music Center, and Pittsburgh Festival Opera among others. He has also directed productions at Youngstown State University, The Rochester Fringe Festival, Miami Children’s Chorus, and Eastman Opera Theater.

Silverman graduated from the Eastman School of Music with Master of Music Degree in Stage Directing and a Certificate in Arts Leadership in May 2020. During his time at Eastman he assistant directed opera productions, taught opera theater classes, and created his own productions. He received his Bachelor’s Degree in Music from the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami, with degrees in both Classical Vocal Performance and Music Business. Upon graduation, he was awarded the Overall Outstanding Senior Award for the Frost School of Music.

During the COVID-19 Pandemic, Silverman created and developed a new web series, Where the Good Songs Go, that launched in Fall 2020 on YouTube and Facebook. The series featured virtual productions of rare early musical theater works by Jerome Kern, Rodgers and Hart, George Gershwin and Eubie Blake. The works presented had never been recorded before and have rarely been performed in the century since their premiere. Through the series, Ian raised hundreds of dollars to help artists affected by the pandemic.

At Eastman, Silverman was a member of the Arts Leadership Program, where he took classes in Leadership Issues, Digital Marketing, and Grant Writing. At the University of Miami, he was appointed the Artistic Director of BisCaydence a cappella. Under his leadership, the group advanced to the International Competition of Collegiate A Cappella (ICCA) semifinals for the first time, recorded their first EP, and worked with local organizations and charities to better the Miami community. Silverman created a culture of excellence that has continued after he left the group, and BisCaydence has evolved into one of the country’s most acclaimed A Cappella group.

Ian Silverman makes community engagement a focus in his work. He is introducing a new generation of theater-goers to opera by blurring the lines between musical theater and opera. He wants to celebrate all kinds of music theater as opposed to being defined by one genre. In May 2019, he directed, The Little Sweep with the award-winning Miami Children’s Chorus, which provides a musical education and performance program to low income children ages 8-18 in Miami-Dade County. Ian has also worked as an Administrative Associate with the Joseph Avenue Arts and Culture Alliance, developing arts events for the community, where one of the nation's most disadvantaged communities is currently experiencing the richness of a grass-roots renaissance and development with the future Center for Performing and Visual Arts at its core. He hopes to inspire curiosity and help communities learn more about themselves through the arts.