Michael Christie (born June 30, 1974 in

Buffalo, New York Buffalo is a Administrative divisions of New York (state), city in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York and county seat of Erie County, New York, Erie County. It lies in Western New York at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of ...

) is a Grammy-winning American conductor. Christie graduated from the

Oberlin College Oberlin College is a Private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college and conservatory of music in Oberlin, Ohio, United States. Founded in 1833, it is the oldest Mixed-sex education, coeducational lib ...

Conservatory of Music with a bachelor's degree in trumpet performance. His conducting teachers have included Peter Jaffe, Eiji Oue, and Robert Spano. He first came to international attention in 1995 when he received a special prize for "outstanding potential" at the First International Sibelius Conductor’s Competition in

Helsinki Helsinki () is the Capital city, capital and most populous List of cities and towns in Finland, city in Finland. It is on the shore of the Gulf of Finland and is the seat of southern Finland's Uusimaa region. About people live in the municipali ...

at age 21. Following the competition, he became an apprentice conductor with the

Chicago Symphony Orchestra The Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO) is an American symphony orchestra based in Chicago, Illinois. Founded by Theodore Thomas in 1891, the ensemble has been based in the Symphony Center since 1904 and plays a summer season at the Ravinia F ...

and subsequently worked with

Daniel Barenboim Daniel Moses Barenboim (; born 15 November 1942) is an Argentines, Argentine-Israeli classical pianist and conductor based in Berlin, who also has Spain, Spanish and State of Palestine, Palestinian citizenship. From 1992 until January 2023, Bare ...

, conducting both in

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

and at the

Berlin State Opera The Staatsoper Unter den Linden ( State Opera under the Lime Trees), also known as the Berlin State Opera (), is a listed building on Unter den Linden boulevard in the historic center of Berlin, Germany. The opera house was built by order of P ...

. From 1996 to 1998, he was associate conductor of the

Helsinki Philharmonic The Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra (; ; literal English translation: Helsinki City Orchestra; commonly abbreviated as HPO) is an orchestra based in Helsinki, Finland. Founded in 1882 by Robert Kajanus, the Philharmonic Orchestra was the first pe ...

. Franz Welser-Möst named Christie assistant conductor at the Zurich Opera for the 1997–98 season. Christie was the music director of the Colorado Music Festival in

Boulder In geology, a boulder (or rarely bowlder) is a rock fragment with size greater than in diameter. Smaller pieces are called cobbles and pebbles. While a boulder may be small enough to move or roll manually, others are extremely massive. In ...

from 2000 to 2013. He is credited with nearly doubling attendance and revenue at the festival during his tenure. He then took the title of music director laureate of the festival. In December 2004, Christie was appointed music director of the Phoenix Symphony. In August 2005, Christie was named the 5th music director of the Brooklyn Philharmonic, with his first concert in February 2006. His Brooklyn Philharmonic tenure concluded in June 2010. In January 2012, Christie was announced as the next music director of

Minnesota Opera Minnesota Opera is a performance organization based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It was founded as the Center Opera Company in 1963 by the Walker Art Center The Walker Art Center is a multidisciplinary contemporary art center in the Lowry Hill ...

. In parallel, he concluded his Phoenix Symphony tenure in 2013, at which time he took the title of music director laureate, for a three-season term. With the Phoenix Symphony, Christie has recorded music of Mark Grey for

Naxos Records Naxos comprises numerous companies, divisions, imprints, and labels specializing in classical music but also audiobooks and other genres. The premier label is Naxos Records, which focuses on classical music. Naxos Musical Group encompasses about ...

. Christie began his tenure as music director of the

with the 2012–2013 season. In February 2014, Michael Christie's contract with the Minnesota Opera was extended to the 2017–2018 season. With the Minnesota Opera, Christie has conducted world premieres of new three operas, commissioned by the Minnesota Opera as part of its New Works Initiative:

Kevin Puts Kevin Matthew Puts (born January 3, 1972) is an American composer, best known for his opera ''The Hours (opera), The Hours'' and for winning a Pulitzer Prize in 2012 for his first opera ''Silent Night (opera), Silent Night'' and a Grammy Award i ...

' ''

Silent Night "Silent Night" () is a popular Christmas carol, composed in 1818 by Franz Xaver Gruber to lyrics by Joseph Mohr in Oberndorf bei Salzburg, Austria. It was declared an intangible cultural heritage by UNESCO The United Nations Educati ...

'' (2011), which won the Pulitzer Prize in music; Puts' ''The Manchurian Candidate'' (2015); and Paul Moravec's '' The Shining'' (2016). Christie concluded his music directorship of Minnesota Opera at the close of the 2017-2018 season. Christie won a 2019 Grammy Award (Best Opera Recording) for the world premiere recording of

Mason Bates Mason Wesley Bates (born January 23, 1977) is a Grammy Award, Grammy award-winning United States, American composer of Orchestra, symphonic music and Disc jockey, DJ of electronic dance music. He is the first composer-in-residence of the John F. ...

’ ''

The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs ''The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs'' is an opera with music by American composer Mason Bates and an English-language libretto by Mark Campbell. It was commissioned by Santa Fe Opera, Seattle Opera, San Francisco Opera, the Jacobs School of Music a ...

'' with

The Santa Fe Opera Santa Fe Opera (SFO) is an American opera company, located north of Santa Fe, New Mexico. After creating the ''Opera Association of New Mexico'' in 1956, its founding director, John Crosby (conductor), John Crosby, oversaw the building of the f ...

(PENTATONE). In 2017, he led the world premiere performances at The Santa Fe Opera. In 2019, Christie was appointed Music Director of the New West Symphony, serving the greater Los Angeles area in Thousand Oaks and Oxnard, California. Outside of the USA, Christie was chief conductor of the Queensland Orchestra from 2001 to December 2004. Whilst in Australia, Christie met his future wife Alexis, a medical doctor. The couple married in 2006,Angela Gonzales, "Work becomes music to his ears". ''Phoenix Business Journal'', June 30, 2006 and they have two children. The family resides in Minneapolis.

References

External links

Official Michael Christie website

'Ep. 126: Michael Christie, Grammy award-winning conductor'
Interview by Tigran Arakelyan {{DEFAULTSORT:Christie, Michael 1974 births 21st-century American conductors (music) 21st-century American male musicians American male conductors (music) Grammy Award winners Living people Oberlin College alumni