ELIO BUCKY

This season, Elio joins The Atlanta Opera as the 24/25 Studio Stage Director. They will serve as an assistant director for Tomer Zvulun’s productions of Rent, La bohème, The Magic Flute, Macbeth, and Siegfried. In February, Elio reunited with conductor John Morris Russell to direct The Seven Deadly Sins with the Hilton Head Symphony Orchestra and artists from Wolf Trap Opera. Their work as a projection designer was seen in Ana María Martínez’s Noche Española recital at Rice University and Die Fledermaus at Binghamton University. This summer, Elio makes their Cincinnati Opera debut as the Revival Director of Rigoletto. Then, they will join the Merola Opera Program in their hometown of San Francisco where they will assist directors Omer Ben Seadia and Garnett Bruce, and direct the Merola Grand Finale on the War Memorial Opera House stage.

In the 2023-2024 season, Elio directed a new production of La bohème; collaborated with pianist Tamar Sanikidze on Song Re-Imagined, a staged multimedia art song recital; and assisted on a new production of Tan Dun’s Tea: A Mirror of Soul at the Butler Opera Center in Austin, TX. Their production of La bohème received third place in the National Opera Association’s Opera Production Competition. Additionally, they were the projection designer for Suor Angelica & Gianni Schicchi at Binghamton University. In the summer, Elio joined Wolf Trap Opera as a Directing Fellow. While in residence, they directed Weill & Brecht’s The Seven Deadly Sins, served as the assistant director of Puccini’s La bohème, and as the dramaturg for the piano-vocal workshop of The House of Yes, a new opera by Kamala Sankaram, Kathleen Kelly, and Michael Kelly.

In the 2022-2023 season, they directed undergraduate opera scenes and served as the assistant director for Proving Up and Les contes d’Hoffmann at the Butler Opera Center. They were the projection designer for Binghamton University’s production of L’incoronazione di Poppea. In the summer, Elio joined the Music Academy of the West as the Lehrer Vocal Institute Directing Fellow. There, they directed Jake Heggie’s Here and Gone; the cover performance of La bohème; served as the assistant director on the summer’s mainstage productions of La bohème and Cabaret: 1979; staged ensembles and designed projections for Music Academy’s Una noche en Miraflores, an evening of Spanish-language music curated by Ana María Martínez and Cesar Cañon; and worked with voice fellows in 1:1 dramatic coachings. They were named a Finalist in the Music Academy Fast Pitch Competition for their proposal to leverage Mixed Reality (AR/VR) technology to develop creative solutions for accessibility in the opera house.

A champion for contemporary opera, Elio regularly collaborates with performers, composers, and librettists to present new work. Most recently, they served as the dramaturg for a workshop of The House of Yes, an opera by Kamala Sankaram, Michael Kelly, and Kathleen Kelly (Wolf Trap Opera). Elio directed the Chicago premiere of Melissa Dunphy’s The Gonzales Cantata (Northwestern University), and served as the assistant director of the Chicago premiere of David T. Little and Royce Vavrek’s Dog Days (Northwestern University) and the world premiere of Michael Ching’s Alice & Anna (Savannah VOICE Festival), in addition to new productions of Missy Mazzoli and Royce Vavrek’s Proving Up and Tan Dun’s Tea: A Mirror of Soul at the Butler Opera Center.

Elio’s artistic pursuits began as a member of the San Francisco Boys Chorus, with whom they sang onstage as a children’s chorister at the San Francisco Opera, on international tours, and at the first Presidential Inauguration of Barack Obama. Trained as an operatic baritone, Elio has been seen on stage in past seasons as Marcello (La bohème), Dr. Falke (Die Fledermaus), Jonathan (If I Were You), El Gallo (The Fantasticks), Dulcamara (L’elisir d’amore), Starveling (A Midsummer Night’s Dream), and Somarone (Béatrice et Bénédict). While at Northwestern, they sang with the Bienen Contemporary/Early Vocal Ensemble under the direction of Donald Nally. They studied voice with Nancy Gustafson, W. Stephen Smith, and Marlena Malas.

As a composer of music for the voice, Elio’s work has been performed by singers and choirs across the United States. At the age of 17, Elio became the youngest winner of the Chanticleer Student Composer Competition. Their winning composition, Shalom!, received its world premiere by Chanticleer and over 200 choristers from schools around the country at Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco, CA. It is published as part of the Chanticleer Choral Series (Hinshaw Music).

Elio holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in voice and opera performance from the Bienen School of Music at Northwestern University, and a master’s degree in opera directing from the Butler Opera Center. As an undergraduate, they simultaneously completed a Bachelor of Music in Voice and Opera Performance, a Bachelor of Science in Communication Studies, and the Integrated Marketing Communications Certificate. They graduated magna cum laude with departmental honors in both fields. An enthusiastic collaborator, Elio has assisted directors including James Darrah, Mo Zhou, and Joachim Schamberger. They have held prestigious directing fellowships at Wolf Trap Opera and the Music Academy of the West, and trained as a singer at the Chautauqua Institution.

Elio is queer & nonbinary. Her work proudly celebrates plurality, truth, and innovation in the creative process. He was born & raised in San Francisco, CA. In their free time, they enjoy taking walks on the Atlanta BeltLine, cooking elaborate meals, and maintaining a healthy media diet of podcasts and television shows.