Ivan Griffin
Stage Director
BIO
Stage Director Ivan Griffin is an accomplished artist whose international career has delighted audiences in Italy, France, Germany, Spain, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Mexico, and South Africa. Ivan has been praised for his dramatic insight, musical sensitivity, and singer-centered approach to storytelling. Career highlights include engagements with Spoleto Festival USA, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Michigan Opera Theatre, Cincinnati Opera, New Orleans Opera, Opera Louisiane, Marble City Opera, Mobile Opera, Union Avenue Opera, Opera Créole, Buffalo Lyric Opera, Great Lakes Lyric Opera, South Carolina Opera, Fayetteville Summer Opera, Western New York Opera, and NY Harlem Productions.
A frequent guest with New Orleans Opera, Ivan has worked on productions of Madame Butterfly, Der Vampyr, La Boheme, Carmen, La Traviata, and Tosca. Other past repertoire includes productions of Les Contes d’Hoffman, Porgy and Bess, Susannah, Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Die Zauberflöte, Guys and Dolls, and Big River. In January 2024, Ivan made his directing debut with Marble City Opera in Knoxville with The Christmas Spider by librettist John de los Santos and composer Clint Borzoni. He returned to the company in October 2024 to direct dwb – Driving While Black by librettist Roberta Gumbel and composer Susan Kander. Based on the strength of this production, Ivan was asked to direct the show again in his debut with Union Avenue Opera in St. Louis in 2025.
A graduate of Southern University and A & M College, and the Eastman School of Music, Mr. Griffin currently serves on the faculty at Loyola University of New Orleans.