Micah Gleason (she/her), current Rita E. Hauser Conducting Fellow at the Curtis Institute of Music, has been recognized for her diverse performance abilities as a conductor, vocal soloist, and chamber musician.
Interdisciplinary collaboration and community building are at the core of Micah’s music-making. She is curious about the most effective ways to disrupt the stasis and comfort of the modern concert hall; and how artists across disciplines, activists, and researchers can most effectively collaborate.
Equally at home in the worlds of symphonic music and opera, Micah has conducted notable ensembles including The Orchestra Now, the Dallas Opera Orchestra, the Curtis Symphony Orchestra, and the Eastern Festival Orchestra; served as the assistant conductor for opera productions with Opera Philadelphia, The Glimmerglass Festival, Curtis Opera Theater, the Bard Graduate Vocal Arts Program, and served as Music Director of The Final Veil Opera during its residency and world premiere at The Cell Theater. She recently made her debut at the Dallas Opera as a featured conductor in their 2024 Hart Institute Showcase. In the 2022-23 season, Micah performed as a conductor and singer with the Curtis Symphony Orchestra, Curtis on Tour, Ensemble 20/21, and Curtis Opera Theater, and assisted notable conductors including Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Osmo Vänskä, David Stern, Michelle Rofrano, Emily Senturia, and Joseph Colaneri. In the coming months, Micah looks forward to serving as music director for the Musicians of Ma’alwyck production of Argento’s A Waterbird Talk, serving as assistant conductor for Curtis Opera Theater’s production of Poulenc’s Les Mamelles de Tirésias and Kurt Weill’s Seven Deadly Sins, serving as assistant conductor for The Juilliard School’s production of La Clemenza di Tito, and working with Hilary Hahn and the Civic Orchestra of Chicago in a masterclass as one of three invited conductors.
An avid performer and lover of chamber music, Micah has appeared as a conductor with Chamber Music Northwest, Philharmonic Society of Orange County, Friends of Music Concerts Inc, and at the 92nd Street Y; as both a singer and conductor with the Phoenix Chamber Music Society, and as a singer with the Collaborative Arts Institute of Chicago.
While obtaining her Masters degrees in Conducting and Vocal Arts at Bard College-Conservatory of Music, studying under James Bagwell and Stephanie Blythe, respectively, she served as the assistant conductor of the Bard Symphonic Chorus, conductor of the Bard Opera Workshop, and as the assistant opera conductor for the Bard Graduate Vocal Arts Program. She holds a Bachelor of Music in Vocal Performance from the Chicago College of Performing Arts, is an alumna of several notable training programs such as the Aspen Music Festival and the Conducting Institute at Oxford, and was one of eight inaugural vocal fellows at the Crested Butte Music Festival.
A multidisciplinary artist herself, Micah enjoys working with collaborators across a range of artistic specializations. Alongside mezzo-soprano Joanne Evans, Micah is a co-founder of LOAM, an artistic partnership presenting semi-immersive theatrical and musical works. Current projects include co-conceiving, producing, and performing as a featured singer in The Fragile Femme, in collaboration with director George Miller, and choreographer Matilda Sakamoto.
In concert, Micah has performed as the alto soloist in the Mozart Requiem, Bach Magnificat in D, Rachmaninoff Vespers, and Handel’s Messiah, to name a few. Micah has also performed multiple operatic roles and extensive art song and chamber music repertoire. An enthusiastic proponent of song new and old, Micah has trained and performed at the Vancouver International Song Institute, SongFest, and Source Song Festival, where she collaborated with several notable living composers.
Micah has appeared with professional ensembles including the Grant Park Symphony Chorus, Philadelphia Orchestra Symphonic Chorus, and the American Symphony Orchestra Festival Chorale. Micah also served as the Alto Artist in Residence at Rockefeller Memorial Chapel at The University of Chicago for two years, where she was a regularly-featured soloist.
Micah was named a 2021 conducting fellow at the Eastern Music Festival, where she studied with Gerard Schwarz, and was recognized by The Gena Branscombe Foundation with their 2021 Emerging Conductor Award. Micah was also named a semi-finalist in the 2022 James Toland Vocal Arts Competition, and won second place in The American Prize in Conducting competition.