Cindy Limauro

Emeritus University Professor of Lighting Design

Cindy Limauro designs lighting for theater, opera, dance, and architecture. She is a Design Partner in C & C Lighting and University Professor of Lighting Design, the highest designation a faculty member can receive at Carnegie Mellon, given for distinguished international recognition and contributions to education and artistic creativity.

Cindy is a member of United Scenic Artists (USA), International Association of Lighting Designers (IALD) and was named a Fellow of the Institute by USITT for Outstanding Contribution to the Theatre.

Lighting designs include the 2021 world film premiere of The Copper Queen for Arizona Opera, the 2019 world premiere of Ashes & Snow for Pittsburgh Opera which also premiered at the Brooklyn Academy of Music and received a Knight of Illumination Award nomination, the world premieres of Dracula Il Musical and Nunsense in Rome, and Pasatieri’s The Three Sisters for Opera Columbus. Other productions with Pittsburgh Opera include The Barber of Seville, Il Trovatore, Ariodante, Cosi fan Tutti, Hansel and Gretel, Marriage of Figaro, The Rake’s Progress, Aida, Madama Butterfly, La Traviata, Falstaff, La Boheme, Samson & Dalila, The Magic Flute, Tosca, Fidelio, Carmen, and Lucia di Lammermoor. Other professional companies include Baltimore Opera, Pittsburgh Public Theater, Pittsburgh Ballet, Cincinnati Ballet, Maryland Ballet, Burt Reynolds Jupiter Theatre, Barter Theatre, Quantum Theatre, Pittsburgh Irish & Classical Theatre, Kinetic Theatre, and City Theatre.

Award winning architectural lighting projects designed with her partner in C & C Lighting, Christopher Popowich, include the Hunt Library and the Randy Pausch Memorial Bridge at Carnegie Mellon, the Carnegie Museum of Natural History’s Hall of Dinosaurs and The Chariot of Aurora at the Carnegie Museum of Art. Other projects include the lighting for the Koppers Building and lighting for the Gulf Tower Weather Beacon in Pittsburgh which changes colors with different weather conditions and has special holiday light shows throughout the year.

Professor Limauro’s design work has been displayed in two international exhibits: the 2007 Prague Quadrennial and World Stage Design in Toronto in 2005. In 2015 she was featured in the April issue of Mondo Arc magazine, profiling her professional designs and teaching. Her lighting design work is published in the 2013 edition of Scene Design and Stage Lighting by R. Craig Wolf and Dick Block, the 2011 edition of Stage Lighting: Fundamentals and Applications by Richard Dunham, June 2010 issue of Lighting and Sound America, March 2006 issue of Stage Directions Magazine in an article titled “5 Remarkable Women in Theatre,” the 2000 edition of Lighting the Stage by Willard Bellman and the January 2001 issue of Lighting Dimensions Magazine.

In 2007, Professor Limauro received the Henry van de Velde Award for Architectural Education in Antwerp for her contribution to interdisciplinary design education. In 2011 Professor Limauro was invited to China to speak at an International Symposium on Lighting Design. She served for two years as the Artistic Leader of the Prague Quadrennial Scenofest 2011 and was the US representative on the Education Commission of OISTAT, the premiere international organization of designers, technicians, and architects from 2005-2010, traveling to Helsinki, Vancouver, London, and Moscow.