director, Painted Skin 画皮

Michael Hofmann is an opera stage director, administrator, performer, and artist based in Hudson, New York. His frequent experience with premiere works and devised performances has positioned him as a specialist in contemporary opera direction dedicated to genuine, engaging, and accessible storytelling. His directorial debut, a semi-staged performance of Bernstein’s Candide with The Orchestra Now in February 2017, was noted as "stunning in its brilliance, humor, and overall gestalt... an astonishing accomplishment" (Millbrook Independent). Hofmann has since directed or stage managed performances with the Kaufman Music Center’s Special Music School, University of Connecticut, Fresh Squeezed Opera, the Bard Music Festival, and the Bard College Music Program. Most recently, he directed Jillian Flexner’s world premiere chamber opera Self-Defined Circuits at HERE Theater in May 2022, a production praised for being “riveting... so artfully done, so sensitive and authentic” (Observer) and “particularly inventive in its use of technologies” (BroadwayWorld).