BIOGRAPHY
GRAMMY® award-winning conductor Michael Christie is an innovative conductor, at home in both the symphonic and opera worlds, who is focused on making the audience experience entertaining, enlightening and enriching. The New York Times reports, “Michael Christie is a director open to adventure and challenge,” and the Cincinnati Enquirer declares, “If Michael Christie represents the future of music in this country, the future looks promising indeed.”
Michael Christie is the Artistic and Music Director of the New West Symphony, serving the Ventura County region in Southern California. Recently, he led the world premiere of Derrick Skye’s Amalgamation for violin and orchestra (commissioned for concertmaster Alyssa Park by the New West Symphony) and presented Dvořák’s “New World" Symphony accompanied by stunning drone images by photo historian Joseph Sohm.
Featured artists for the 2025 season include multi-instrumentalist Hong Wang in a world premiere by Kui Dong celebrating the Chinese Lunar New Year, Vieness Piano Duo, New West Symphony Chorus, Los Robles Children’s Choir, State Street Ballet, pianist Inna Faliks and many distinguished vocal soloists throughout the year. This summer, New West will present its third annual Summerfest, a successful mini-festival held outdoors at Rancho de las Palmas in Moorpark, CA. He leads New West Symphony’s November performances of ET: The Extra Terrestrial live to picture.
Photo by Bradford Rogne
Other upcoming engagements include conducting two concerts at the Peabody Institute of The Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, with works by Gabriela Ortiz, Valerie Coleman, Dvořák, Britten and Strauss. He will also lead two performances with the Edmonton Symphony in Alberta, Canada featuring guitarist Jason Vieaux.
In November 2024, Christie conducted the world premiere of The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, with music by Mason Bates and a libretto by Gene Scheer, at Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music. The opera will subsequently be performed at The Metropolitan Opera. Also in 2024, he led Journey to Valhalla at the Lyric Opera of Kansas City. This semi-staged production features the best moments from Wagner’s epic Ring Cycle in one evening, based on a score prepared by Christie.
In 2023, Christie led the San Francisco Opera’s production of The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs, composed by Mason Bates, with a libretto by Mark Campbell and directed by Kevin Newbury. Previously, he conducted The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs at the Calgary Opera, Lyric Opera of Kansas City, Atlanta Opera and Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music.
Michael Christie won a 2019 GRAMMY® award (Best Opera Recording) for the world premiere recording of Mason Bates’ The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs with The Santa Fe Opera (PENTATONE). In 2017, he led the world premiere performances at The Santa Fe Opera, “with suave assurance” (San Francisco Chronicle), with “precision and pizzazz” (Santa Fe New Mexican) and “preside[d] over an expertly executed performance” (The Financial Times).
Deeply committed to bringing new works to life, Michael Christie has championed commissions by Mark Adamo, Mason Bates, Michael Daugherty, Kui Dong, Osvaldo Golijov, Mark Grey, Daron Hagen, Huang Ruo, Matthew Hindson, Marjan Mozetich, Stephen Paulus, Kevin Puts, and more. In 2018, he led the world premiere of An American Soldier by Huang Ruo at Opera Theatre of St. Louis “with impressive precision (Dallas Morning News).” Christie was named “a champion of fresh work” by The Denver Post and “a top-notch conductor of new works” by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
Michael Christie was featured in Opera News in August 2012 as one of 25 people believed to “break out and become major forces in the field in the coming decade.” At Minnesota Opera, he led 24 productions over eight years, with six seasons as its first-ever Music Director (2012-18)—from staples of the repertory such as La traviata, Nabucco, Macbeth, La bohème, Fanciulla del West, Arabella, and Das Rheingold to performances of contemporary operas via the company’s New Works Initiative, including Bernard Herrmann’s Wuthering Heights, the world premiere of Kevin Puts’ Silent Night, which won the Pulitzer Prize in 2012, the world premiere of Kevin Puts’ The Manchurian Candidate, and the world premiere of Paul Moravec’s The Shining.
Photo by Tim Trumble
Other highlights include Christie’s San Francisco Opera debut in the world premiere performances of Mark Adamo’s The Gospel of Mary Magdalene and Twenty-Seven by Ricky Ian Gordon at Opera Theatre of St. Louis. Notable past performances include highly praised productions of John Corigliano’s The Ghosts of Versailles and John Adams’ The Death of Klinghoffer, and the North American premiere of Unsuk Chin’s Alice in Wonderland, all with Opera Theatre of St. Louis; the European premieres of The Ghosts of Versailles at Wexford Festival Opera; and performances at Opernhaus Zürich, Finnish National Opera, Scottish Opera, Lyric Opera of Kansas City and Lyric Opera of Chicago. He also led performances of Kevin Puts’ Silent Night at Opera Philadelphia, Wexford Festival Opera and Opéra de Montréal.
Christie’s conducting career, spanning more than 25 years, has included serving as Music Director of the Phoenix Symphony (2005-13), Brooklyn Philharmonic (2005-10) and Colorado Music Festival (2000-13), plus Chief Conductor of the Queensland Orchestra (2001-04), as well as guest appearances with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, National Symphony Orchestra, Civic Orchestra of Chicago, Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, Rhode Island Philharmonic, and the Symphonies of Dallas, St. Louis, Atlanta, Houston, Minnesota, Oregon, Indianapolis, Cincinnati, and Santa Rosa. He is Music Director Emeritus of the Colorado Music Festival.
Christie’s many European engagements have included leading the Rotterdam Philharmonic, DSO Berlin, Orchestre National de Lille, Swedish and Netherlands Radio Symphony, City of Birmingham Symphony, NDR Hannover Orchestra and the Czech Philharmonic. In addition, he enjoys a strong profile in Australia, where he has conducted the Sydney Symphony, Tasmanian Symphony, Opera Queensland, and the Western Australian Symphony in Perth.
Christie’s New York Philharmonic debut came in 2007 when he stepped in on short notice for an ailing Riccardo Muti, and his Carnegie Hall debut came in 2014 when he led the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra as part of the Spring for Music Festival.
Michael Christie first came to international attention in 1995 when he was awarded a special prize for “Outstanding Potential” at the First International Sibelius Conductors’ Competition in Helsinki. Following the competition, he was invited to become an apprentice conductor with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra where he subsequently worked with Daniel Barenboim as well as at the Berlin State Opera during the 1996-97 season. He graduated from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music with a bachelor's degree in trumpet performance. Christie lives in the Twin Cities with his wife, Alexis, a physician, and their two children.
Updated January 2025
Michael can be found on Facebook, Instagram and Spotify.