Maestro Willis returns to Skagit Opera after conducting our La Bohéme and Traviata in 2008. He conducted the recently Grammy-Nominated, Nashville Symphony’s Naxos recording of French composer Maurice Ravel’s one-act opera, L’Enfant et les sortilèges. He served as Associate Conductor of the Seattle Symphony from 2002-2003, after having held the post of Assistant Conductor there since Sept. 2000. He was Assistant Conductor with the Cincinnati Symphony and Pops Orchestras and Music Director of the Cincinnati Symphony Youth Orchestra. Mr. Willis has appeared with the Chicago Symphony, the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, the St. Louis Symphony, and the Houston Symphony. Born in Acton, MA, he received his bachelor’s degree with honors from England’s Bristol University and continued at Kingston University with a post-graduate Certificate of Education. He won a scholarship in 1996 to study with Maestro Larry Rachleff at the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University in Houston, graduating with a Master of Music degree in 1999.