Micah, an “easygoing yet fiercely skilled conductor and singer” (NYT), recently completed a Conducting Fellowship at the Curtis Institute of Music as mentee of Yannick Nézet-Séguin, was chosen by the Dallas Opera for their Hart Institute for Women Conductors and is a recipient of the 2024 Taki Alsop Conducting Fellowship Award. 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 of the modern concert hall.
Toggle the options to the right to accept inquiries.
Hope & Triumph: Price, Montgomery, Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 4
Micah Gleason, Guest Conductor
This program is a reflection on and testament to the strength that it takes to hold on to a dream in the face of unspeakable challenges.
Micah serves as assistant/cover conductor to Timothy Myers.
From acclaimed choreographer Benjamin Millepied comes a bold, multidisciplinary reenvisioning of Shakespeare’s tragedy with Prokofiev’s lush score. Set in a modern metropolis, the titular duo are recast as diverse young adults: rotating between male/female, male/male, and female/female pairings. The fast-paced drama unfolds both on and beyond the Gaillard stage through live video, a state-of-the-art projection system, and accompaniment by the Spoleto Festival USA Orchestra under the baton of Orchestra Music Director Timothy Myers. Hailed by The New Yorker as “startling, dazzling, and wrenching in equal measure,” Romeo and Juliet Suite offers a riveting treatise on the recklessness of young love.
Choreographed by Benjamin Millepied
Composed by Sergei Prokofiev
Conducted by Timothy Myers
Spoleto Festival USA Orchestra
Micah serves as assistant / cover conductor to Timothy Myers.
Gustav Mahler’s epic symphony, divided into five rich, wildly distinct movements, is a titanic work, virtually unmatched in expressive intensity. Continuing Spoleto’s commitment to commissioning new music, the concert also features a world premiere concerto by Grammy-nominated flutist, singer, and composer, Nathalie Joachim, performed by a “cellist of power and grace” (The Guardian), guest soloist Seth Parker Woods.
Micah serves as assistant/cover conductor to Timothy Myers.
Beethoven’s stirring Symphony No. 3, “Heroic,” marked a decisive turn from the Classical to Romantic period, truly groundbreaking in both form and approach. This ambitious program also features Shostakovich’s sparkling Piano Concerto No. 1, performed by internationally celebrated pianist (and Festival favorite) Inon Barnatan, and Reena Esmail’s Testament (from Vishwas), which showcases the dexterous weaving of Indian and Western classical music we can expect from this year’s chamber music composer-in-residence.
Micah conducts the Spoleto Festival USA Orchestra, in collaboration with Aoife O’Donovan.
A century after winning the right to vote, how much has really changed for American women? That question lies at the heart of Grammy Award- winning singer-songwriter Aoife O’Donovan’s upcoming album All My Friends, set for release this March. Inspired by the letters and speeches of suffragist Carrie Chapman Catt, the album ponders the nation’s evolution amidst a lush soundscape featuring brass, orchestra, girls’ choir, and O’Donovan’s own mysterious and compelling voice. The 2022 Folk Alliance International Song of the Year winner, who was last seen at Spoleto in 2019 performing with her acclaimed trio, I’m With Her, is joined by members of the Spoleto Festival USA Orchestra for a musical event 100 years in the making.
Micah serves as assistant conductor to Corrado Rovaris on Opera Philadelphia’s fall 2024 mainstage production of Missy Mazzoli’s The Listeners.
Composer Missy Mazzoli and librettist Royce Vavrek follow up on their acclaimed 2016 world premiere Breaking the Waves with a thriller about the seductive power of cults and charismatic leaders in a divided nation.
The Listeners examines the lengths to which we, as Americans, are willing to go to find a sense of place and purpose, and the way in which confident, charming leaders can exploit these needs to their own ends.
A middle-class mother (soprano Nicole Heaston in her company debut) living in a southwestern U.S. suburb notices a “hum,” a high-frequency environmental noise that only a select few people, the "Listeners,” can hear. A community organization quickly forms to solve the mystery of the hum, but when the de facto leader (Kevin Burdette) suggests a spiritual significance, the meetings become increasingly cult-like. Is this community of “Listeners” on a collision course with destruction?
Micah performs with the Phoenix Chamber Music Society both as a vocalist and conductor on their “Botanical Brass” concert. Micah sings Stravinsky’s Berceuse du Chat and conducts Stravinsky’s Octet in collaboration with David Shifrin and other musicians through the Phoenix Chamber Music Society.
Program details:
Gabrielli Four Canzonas for Brass Quintet
Martinu Quartet for clarinet, horn, cello, and snare drum
Stravinsky Berceuse du Chat for mezzo-soprano and three clarinets
Stravinsky Octet for flute, clarinet, two bassoons, two trumpets, and two trombones
More details and tickets here.
Micah Gleason conducts L’Histoire du Soldat with John DeLancie Jr, narrator, David Schifrin, clarinet, Soovin Kim, violin and students of the Curtis Institute. A thrilling tale of trickery and magic, Igor Stravinsky’s L’Histoire du Soldat comes to life through an ensemble of musicians. The program, designed for audiences in North America, also features works by Penderecki, Poulenc, Curtis Director of Composition Studies and Ensemble 20/21 Nick DiBerardino, and Curtis alumnus Viet Cuong. In addition to L’Histoire, Micah conducts the world premiere of Nick DiBeradino’s Darmok & Jalad, composed for L’Histoire septet.
Click here for more information about the tour and to purchase tickets.
Tour will also include performances throughout the month of March in the following locations:
March 6-10 2023
Phoenix, AZ
Presented by Phoenix Chamber Music Society
Saturday, March 11, 2023
Irvine, CA
Irvine Barclay Theater
Presented by Philharmonic Society of Orange County
Tuesday, March 14, 2023
Portland, OR
Alberta Rose Theatre
Presented by Chamber Music Northwest
Saturday, March 18, 2023
Sleepy Hollow, NY
Presented by Friends of Music Concerts, Inc
Sunday, March 19, 2023
New York, NY
Kaufmann Concert Hall
Presented by 92nd Street Y, part of Curtis at 92NY
Tuesday, March 21, 2023
Philadelphia, PA
Gould Rehearsal Hall
Presented by Curtis Institute of Music
Friday, March 24, 2023
Stillwater, OK
Presented by McKnight Center for the Performing Arts
Sunday, March 26, 2023
Overland Park, KS
Presented by Midwest Trust Center
Under the baton of conductor Osmo Vänskä, former music director of the Minnesota Orchestra, the Curtis Symphony Orchestra presents an exhilarating evening of music. Micah opens the concert with Julia Perry’s orchestral tour-de-force, the Short Piece for Orchestra, and serves as cover conductor for additional Repertoire.
More details and tickets here.
Yannick Nézet-Séguin, the Curtis Symphony Orchestra and members of Curtis Opera Theatre kick off the Curtis 2023–24 season with a tribute to Strauss. A celebration of the composer’s life and legacy, the program features highlights from some of his most popular operas, and it scales the spectacular heights of his final tone poem, An Alpine Symphony. Micah Gleason opens the concert, conducting the marvelously explosive and seductive “Dance of the Seven Veils” from Salome.
Micah serves as Conductor / Music Director of The Final Veil Opera, a movement opera devised by composer JL Marlor and director/choreographer Cassandra Rosebeetle, during its residency and world premiere at The Cell Theater in Manhattan. The Final Veil Opera follows the true story of Franceska Mann, a Polish-Jewish dancer who demonstrated resistance and strength amid the horrors of the Holocaust.
BUY TICKETS HERE
July 14th-17th
July 21st-24th
July 28th-31st
Based on Henry James’s chilling 19th-century novella, Benjamin Britten’s psychological thriller The Turn of the Screw launches the Curtis Opera Theatre season with a spine-tingling tale of ghosts and possession at the Philadelphia Film Center. Directed by Chas Rader-Shieber and conducted by Louis Lohraseb, this atmospheric masterpiece has kept audiences on the edge of their seats for over six decades.
Micah serves as assistant / off-stage conductor.
Nov. 18, 2022 7:30pm
Nov. 20, 2022 2:30pm
For more information and to purchase tickets, click here.
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 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. Micah was recently selected to receive a Taki Alsop Conducting Fellowship 2024 award.
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.
Micah, an “easygoing yet fiercely skilled conductor and singer” (NYT), recently completed a Conducting Fellowship at the Curtis Institute of Music as mentee of Yannick Nézet-Séguin, was chosen by the Dallas Opera for their Hart Institute for Women Conductors and is a recipient of the 2024 Taki Alsop Conducting Fellowship Award. 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 of the modern concert hall.
Toggle the options to the right to accept inquiries.
Hope & Triumph: Price, Montgomery, Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 4
Micah Gleason, Guest Conductor
This program is a reflection on and testament to the strength that it takes to hold on to a dream in the face of unspeakable challenges.
Micah serves as assistant/cover conductor to Timothy Myers.
From acclaimed choreographer Benjamin Millepied comes a bold, multidisciplinary reenvisioning of Shakespeare’s tragedy with Prokofiev’s lush score. Set in a modern metropolis, the titular duo are recast as diverse young adults: rotating between male/female, male/male, and female/female pairings. The fast-paced drama unfolds both on and beyond the Gaillard stage through live video, a state-of-the-art projection system, and accompaniment by the Spoleto Festival USA Orchestra under the baton of Orchestra Music Director Timothy Myers. Hailed by The New Yorker as “startling, dazzling, and wrenching in equal measure,” Romeo and Juliet Suite offers a riveting treatise on the recklessness of young love.
Choreographed by Benjamin Millepied
Composed by Sergei Prokofiev
Conducted by Timothy Myers
Spoleto Festival USA Orchestra
Micah serves as assistant / cover conductor to Timothy Myers.
Gustav Mahler’s epic symphony, divided into five rich, wildly distinct movements, is a titanic work, virtually unmatched in expressive intensity. Continuing Spoleto’s commitment to commissioning new music, the concert also features a world premiere concerto by Grammy-nominated flutist, singer, and composer, Nathalie Joachim, performed by a “cellist of power and grace” (The Guardian), guest soloist Seth Parker Woods.
Micah serves as assistant/cover conductor to Timothy Myers.
Beethoven’s stirring Symphony No. 3, “Heroic,” marked a decisive turn from the Classical to Romantic period, truly groundbreaking in both form and approach. This ambitious program also features Shostakovich’s sparkling Piano Concerto No. 1, performed by internationally celebrated pianist (and Festival favorite) Inon Barnatan, and Reena Esmail’s Testament (from Vishwas), which showcases the dexterous weaving of Indian and Western classical music we can expect from this year’s chamber music composer-in-residence.
Micah conducts the Spoleto Festival USA Orchestra, in collaboration with Aoife O’Donovan.
A century after winning the right to vote, how much has really changed for American women? That question lies at the heart of Grammy Award- winning singer-songwriter Aoife O’Donovan’s upcoming album All My Friends, set for release this March. Inspired by the letters and speeches of suffragist Carrie Chapman Catt, the album ponders the nation’s evolution amidst a lush soundscape featuring brass, orchestra, girls’ choir, and O’Donovan’s own mysterious and compelling voice. The 2022 Folk Alliance International Song of the Year winner, who was last seen at Spoleto in 2019 performing with her acclaimed trio, I’m With Her, is joined by members of the Spoleto Festival USA Orchestra for a musical event 100 years in the making.
Micah serves as assistant conductor to Corrado Rovaris on Opera Philadelphia’s fall 2024 mainstage production of Missy Mazzoli’s The Listeners.
Composer Missy Mazzoli and librettist Royce Vavrek follow up on their acclaimed 2016 world premiere Breaking the Waves with a thriller about the seductive power of cults and charismatic leaders in a divided nation.
The Listeners examines the lengths to which we, as Americans, are willing to go to find a sense of place and purpose, and the way in which confident, charming leaders can exploit these needs to their own ends.
A middle-class mother (soprano Nicole Heaston in her company debut) living in a southwestern U.S. suburb notices a “hum,” a high-frequency environmental noise that only a select few people, the "Listeners,” can hear. A community organization quickly forms to solve the mystery of the hum, but when the de facto leader (Kevin Burdette) suggests a spiritual significance, the meetings become increasingly cult-like. Is this community of “Listeners” on a collision course with destruction?
Micah performs with the Phoenix Chamber Music Society both as a vocalist and conductor on their “Botanical Brass” concert. Micah sings Stravinsky’s Berceuse du Chat and conducts Stravinsky’s Octet in collaboration with David Shifrin and other musicians through the Phoenix Chamber Music Society.
Program details:
Gabrielli Four Canzonas for Brass Quintet
Martinu Quartet for clarinet, horn, cello, and snare drum
Stravinsky Berceuse du Chat for mezzo-soprano and three clarinets
Stravinsky Octet for flute, clarinet, two bassoons, two trumpets, and two trombones
More details and tickets here.
Micah Gleason conducts L’Histoire du Soldat with John DeLancie Jr, narrator, David Schifrin, clarinet, Soovin Kim, violin and students of the Curtis Institute. A thrilling tale of trickery and magic, Igor Stravinsky’s L’Histoire du Soldat comes to life through an ensemble of musicians. The program, designed for audiences in North America, also features works by Penderecki, Poulenc, Curtis Director of Composition Studies and Ensemble 20/21 Nick DiBerardino, and Curtis alumnus Viet Cuong. In addition to L’Histoire, Micah conducts the world premiere of Nick DiBeradino’s Darmok & Jalad, composed for L’Histoire septet.
Click here for more information about the tour and to purchase tickets.
Tour will also include performances throughout the month of March in the following locations:
March 6-10 2023
Phoenix, AZ
Presented by Phoenix Chamber Music Society
Saturday, March 11, 2023
Irvine, CA
Irvine Barclay Theater
Presented by Philharmonic Society of Orange County
Tuesday, March 14, 2023
Portland, OR
Alberta Rose Theatre
Presented by Chamber Music Northwest
Saturday, March 18, 2023
Sleepy Hollow, NY
Presented by Friends of Music Concerts, Inc
Sunday, March 19, 2023
New York, NY
Kaufmann Concert Hall
Presented by 92nd Street Y, part of Curtis at 92NY
Tuesday, March 21, 2023
Philadelphia, PA
Gould Rehearsal Hall
Presented by Curtis Institute of Music
Friday, March 24, 2023
Stillwater, OK
Presented by McKnight Center for the Performing Arts
Sunday, March 26, 2023
Overland Park, KS
Presented by Midwest Trust Center
Under the baton of conductor Osmo Vänskä, former music director of the Minnesota Orchestra, the Curtis Symphony Orchestra presents an exhilarating evening of music. Micah opens the concert with Julia Perry’s orchestral tour-de-force, the Short Piece for Orchestra, and serves as cover conductor for additional Repertoire.
More details and tickets here.
Yannick Nézet-Séguin, the Curtis Symphony Orchestra and members of Curtis Opera Theatre kick off the Curtis 2023–24 season with a tribute to Strauss. A celebration of the composer’s life and legacy, the program features highlights from some of his most popular operas, and it scales the spectacular heights of his final tone poem, An Alpine Symphony. Micah Gleason opens the concert, conducting the marvelously explosive and seductive “Dance of the Seven Veils” from Salome.
Micah serves as Conductor / Music Director of The Final Veil Opera, a movement opera devised by composer JL Marlor and director/choreographer Cassandra Rosebeetle, during its residency and world premiere at The Cell Theater in Manhattan. The Final Veil Opera follows the true story of Franceska Mann, a Polish-Jewish dancer who demonstrated resistance and strength amid the horrors of the Holocaust.
BUY TICKETS HERE
July 14th-17th
July 21st-24th
July 28th-31st
Based on Henry James’s chilling 19th-century novella, Benjamin Britten’s psychological thriller The Turn of the Screw launches the Curtis Opera Theatre season with a spine-tingling tale of ghosts and possession at the Philadelphia Film Center. Directed by Chas Rader-Shieber and conducted by Louis Lohraseb, this atmospheric masterpiece has kept audiences on the edge of their seats for over six decades.
Micah serves as assistant / off-stage conductor.
Nov. 18, 2022 7:30pm
Nov. 20, 2022 2:30pm
For more information and to purchase tickets, click here.
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 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. Micah was recently selected to receive a Taki Alsop Conducting Fellowship 2024 award.
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.