Doug Fitch, director/designer

Visual artist, designer, and director Doug Fitch, who collaborates on A Song by Mahler with lighting designer Nicholas Houfek, is known for his acclaimed and innovative productions of Ligeti’s Le Grand Macabre and Janáček’s The Cunning Little Vixen for the New York Philharmonic, Puccini’s Turandot for The Santa Fe Opera, Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel for LA Opera, HK Gruber’s Gloria—A Pig Tale for The Metropolitan Museum of Art in collaboration with the New York Philharmonic and The Juilliard School, and Stravinsky’s L’Histoire du soldat for the Festival. “The thing about A Song by Mahler,” Mr. Fitch says, “is that there’s nothing else like it. I love how musically and dramatically efficient this opera is and how it reinvents the form while being completely adherent to the storytelling.” The Co-Founder and Artistic Director of Giants Are Small, Fitch was the inaugural visiting artist at SUNY, where he created an opera of images, How Did We...? , and he has directed projects for Canada’s National Arts Centre, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, and Tanglewood.