Michael Christie (born June 30, 1974 in
Buffalo, New York) 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. It is the oldest Mixed-sex education, coeducational liberal arts college in the United S ...
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 at age 21. Following the competition, he became an apprentice conductor with the
Chicago Symphony Orchestra and subsequently worked with
Daniel Barenboim
Daniel Barenboim (; in he, דניאל בארנבוים, born 15 November 1942) is an Argentine-born classical pianist and conductor based in Berlin. He has been since 1992 General Music Director of the Berlin State Opera and "Staatskapellmeist ...
, conducting both in
Chicago and at the
Berlin State Opera
The (), also known as the Berlin State Opera (german: Staatsoper Berlin), is a listed building on Unter den Linden boulevard in the historic center of Berlin, Germany. The opera house was built by order of Prussian king Frederick the Great from ...
. From 1996 to 1998, he was associate conductor of the
Helsinki Philharmonic.
Franz Welser-Möst
Franz Leopold Maria Möst (born 16 August 1960), known professionally as Franz Welser-Möst, is an Austrian conductor. He is currently music director of the Cleveland Orchestra.
Biography
Franz Leopold Maria Möst was born in Linz, Austria, ...
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 c ...
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, and is known for premiering such diverse works as ''Where the Wild Things Are'' by Oliver ...
. 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
Mark Grey is an American classical music composer, sound designer and sound engineer.
Career
Mark Grey attended San Jose State University in California, where he studied electroacoustic music and composition with Pablo Furman and Allen Stran ...
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 1 ...
.
Christie began his tenure as music director of the
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, and is known for premiering such diverse works as ''Where the Wild Things Are'' by Oliver ...
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' ''
Silent Night'' (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’ ''
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 at ...
'' 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, oversaw the building of the first opera house on a new ...
(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
The New West Symphony is a regional professional symphony orchestra serving the Los Angeles metropolitan area. It was founded in 1995. The orchestra's players are professional musicians drawn from the rich pool of classical musicians in the Los An ...
, serving the greater Los Angeles area in Thousand Oaks and Oxnard, California.
Outside of the USA, Christie was chief conductor of the
Queensland Orchestra
Queensland Symphony Orchestra (QSO) is an Australian symphony orchestra in the state of Queensland. The orchestra is based in the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's building in South Bank. The Orchestra is funded by private corporations, t ...
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 websiteJensen Artists agency page on Michael ChristieStephen Lemons, 'Michael Christie and the Ongoing Rumble in the Phoenix Symphony'. ''Phoenix New Times'' (blog entry), 23 March 2009'Ep. 126: Michael Christie, Grammy award-winning conductor'Interview by Tigran Arakelyan
{{DEFAULTSORT:Christie, Michael
1974 births
Living people
Oberlin College alumni
American male conductors (music)
21st-century American conductors (music)
21st-century American male musicians