Michael a. ciavagliA, Artistic Director

Michael A. Ciavaglia is active in the fields of choral performance, opera, and higher education. In addition to his work as the Artistic Director of the Connecticut Chamber Choir, Michael is chorus master of On Site Opera in New York City, where he recently led a chorus of individuals who had experienced homelessness in performances of Amahl and the Night Visitors. This season, he conducted at the United Nations as part of the International Day to End Violence against Women in collaboration with The Angel Band Project, and this fall he will conduct the debut performances of a new chorus in Manhattan composed of singers who have experienced homelessness. In addition, he has served for many years on the music staffs of the Cincinnati Opera and the New York Choral Society, one of Manhattan’s premier avocational symphonic choruses, for which he conducted the New York Choral Society Chamber Ensemble. He has regularly prepared choruses for the Richard Tucker Music Foundation Gala and for the New York performances of superstar tenor Andrea Bocelli, and is in frequent demand as a choral preparer in New York City.

Michael has been on the faculty of Fairfield University in Fairfield, Connecticut since 2006. There, he teaches music history in the classroom as well as voice in the studio. He is a frequent guest conductor of the Fairfield University Glee Club and Chamber Singers, and has conducted those ensembles in performance in Connecticut, the greater New York region, and on tour in the United States and in Europe.

He has conducted and served as chorus master and head of music of the Asheville Lyric Opera in North Carolina since 2013. His recent conducting highlights in Asheville include Il barbiere di Siviglia, L’elisir d’amore , and the world premiere of When Adonis Calls by Clint Borzoni and John De Los Santos. Michael is a resident of Stamford, Connecticut. He is an alumnus of Fairfield University (BA, 2004), Temple University (MM, 2006), and the College-Conservatory of Music at the University of Cincinnati (DMA, 2013). Michael’s culminating doctoral document, The Choral Music of Robert De Cormier (2013), included the first complete catalogue of the published choral compositions and arrangements of Robert DeCormier (1922-2017).