Michael Christie (conductor)

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Michael Christie (born 30 June 1974) was appointed as the Virginia G. Piper Music Director of The Phoenix Symphony in December 2004. His initial five-year contract runs through the 2009-10 season. He also contines his role as music director of the Colorado Music Festival each summer in Boulder, a position he has held since 2000. He served as chief conductor of the Queensland Orchestra in Australia from 2001-04, and since that time has returned as principal guest conductor. Beginning with the 2005-06 season, Michael Christie is also music director of the Brooklyn Philharmonic.

Christie has guest conducted leading orchestras throughout Europe, including the City of Birmingham Symphony, Lausanne Chamber Orchestra, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, and Swedish Radio Symphony. He has worked with all the major Finnish orchestras and, from 1996-98, was associate conductor of the Helsinki Philharmonic. In North America, his guest conducting enagements have included appearances with the symphony orchestras of Atlanta, Dallas, Indianapolis, Kansas City, Los Angeles, Minnesota, St. Louis, and Vancouver. Recent and upcoming performances include return engagements with several of these ensembles as well as with the Luxembourg Philharmonic and Czech Philharmonic.

Michael Christie has also established a reputation as an opera conductor. Each season, he conducts both opera and ballet performances at the Zurich Opera, where he was assistant conductor to Franz Welser-Möst for the 1997-98 season. He has also worked with the Finnish National Opera and with the Queensland Opera.

Christie first came to international attention in 1995 when he was awarded a special prize 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, conducting both in Chicago and at the Berlin State Opera.

Michael Christie was born in Buffalo, New York. He graduated from the Oberlin College Conservatory of Music with a bachelor’s degree in trumpet performance. His conducting teachers have included Peter Jaffe, Eiji Oue, and Robert Spano.