Professor, School of Social Sciences, Humanities and Arts
DEGREES: Master of Fine Arts, Yale School of Drama Bachelor of Fine Arts, Goodman School of Drama
AREAS OF EXPERTISE: Costume design for theater, opera, ballet, dance, film and television; History of clothing, costumes and fashion; History of costume design; Drawing Painting in watercolor, gouache, acrylic and pastels.
BIOGRAPHYDunya Ramicova was born in the former Czechoslovakia in 1950. She immigrated to United States in 1968. She received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Goodman School of Drama, a theatre conservatory then attached to the Art Institute of Chicago. She attended Yale School of Drama, the premiere professional theatre-training program in the United States and received a Master of Fine Arts degree in 1977. Professor Ramicova's entire academic and professional training was concentrated on costume design for theatre, opera, ballet, dance, film and television. Immediately after graduation from Yale School of Drama Professor Ramicova embarked on a dual career of a professional costume designer and professor of design which she has been engaged in ever since. She taught costume design at Yale School of Drama for 10 years as well as being a Resident Costume Designer for the Yale Repertory Theatre, a professional theatre company attached to Yale School of Drama. Professor Ramicova's former classmates at YSD, the YSD faculty as well as the directors, actors and playwrights she came in contact with while working at Yale Repertory Theatre upheld the highest artistic standards and provided her with excellent professional opportunities. In the past 27 years Professor Ramicova has designed costumes for over one hundred and fifty productions in the United States and Europe. Her work has appeared at such prestigious venues as The Metropolitan Opera, The Royal Opera House at Covent Garden, The Salzburger Festspiele, The Public Theatre, The Guthrie Theatre, The Mark Taper Form, Lincoln Center Theatre and New York City Opera. Professor Ramicova has worked with some of the most accomplished artists of today including composers John Adams, Philip Glass and Tan Dun, conductors Esa-Pekka Salonen, William Christie, Kent Nagano, Simon Rattle and James Levine, directors Peter Sellars, James Lapine, John Madden and Francesca Zambello, opera singers Dawn Upshaw, Samuel Ramey, Luciano Pavarotti and Fredericka Van Staade, actors Annette Bening, Joan Cusack, Richard Thomas, Jessica Tandy, David Alan Grier and Christopher Walken, poet June Jordan, choreographers Donald Byrd and Mark Morris, writer Ariel Dorfman, playwrights Tony Kushner, Howard Benton and David Henry Hwang and dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov.
Professor Ramicova moved to California in 1988 where she has been teaching at University of California since (first at UC Santa Barbara's Dramatic Arts Department and later at UC Los Angeles, in The School of Theater, Film and Television.) Over her years as a professor she has taught many of today's most talented and accomplished professional designers as well as educators.
Professor Ramicova joined the UC Merced founding faculty in July 2004 and moved to Merced in late August 2004. She is currently preparing a plan for the future of arts at UC Merced. Her goal is to create a balanced art program that will serve both students who are not planning a career in the arts as well as those who are hoping to become professional artists. Higher education in the United States has been in the past twenty or so years putting emphasis on professional training of artists. This emphasis has created a truly positive and inspiring environment for young artists pursuing their dreams. However, professional art training is extremely expensive. Consequently, where professional art training has advanced, the teaching of art as enrichment to all students has fallen by the wayside. Equally training for those who are planning careers in art education or in education in general has been de-emphasized.
Professor Ramicova is also planning to create at UC Merced a center where students and the Central Valley community can come to enjoy the arts. Professor Ramicova welcomes a dialogue about the future of arts at UC Merced. Please, feel free to contact her at her university e-mail address.
Dunya Ramicova was born in the former Czechoslovakia in 1950. She immigrated to the United States in 1968. She studied at The Goodman School of Drama and The Yale School of Drama. She has designed costumes for over hundred and fifty productions of theater, opera, ballet, dance, film and television in the United States and Europe. Her work has appeared at such prestigious venues as The Metropolitan Opera ( The Voyage, a world premiere of a Philip Glass opera and I Lombardi with Luciano Pavarotti), the Royal Opera House in London ( Alcina and Mathis Der Mahler ), Glyndebourne Festival Opera ( The Magic Lute and Theodora ) as well as The Salzburger Festspiele, Chicago Lyric Opera and many others. Her most recent productions include The Intelligent Design of Jenny Chow at South Coast Repertory Theater in Costa Mesa, California and Hedda Gabler at The Geffen Playhouse in Los Angeles.She has also designed costumes for productions at the Guthrie Theater, Lincoln Center for Performing Arts, Public Theater, The Mark Taper Forum, The Goodman Theater, Berkeley Repertory Theater and many others. She is the long-time collaborator of director Peter Sellars. Their most recent collaborations are El Nino, an opera by Pulitzer Prize winning composer John Adams and The Peony Pavilion, a world premiere of an opera by composer Tan Dun. Their work together also includes the world premieres of Nixon in China , The Death of Klinghoffer also by John Adams and Saint Francois. She is currently designing costumes for two new operas, An American Tragedy for The Metropolitan Opera and Doctor Atomic for San Francisco Opera. Dunya Ramicova has taught costume design and related subjects for the past twenty-five years at The Yale School of Drama, Harvard University and University of California in Santa Barbara and Los Angeles.