Micah Gleason, an “easygoing yet fiercely skilled conductor and singer” (NYT), recently completed a Conducting Fellowship at the Curtis Institute of Music as mentee of conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin, was chosen by the Dallas Opera for its renowned 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 and comfort of the modern concert hall; and how artists across disciplines, activists, and researchers can most effectively collaborate.
At home in the worlds of symphonic music and opera, Micah has conducted notable ensembles including The Spoleto Festival Orchestra, Fiskars Festival Orchestra, The Orchestra Now, the Dallas Opera Orchestra, the Curtis Symphony Orchestra, and the Eastern Festival Orchestra; served as Music Director for the Musicians of Ma’alwyck’s production of Argento’s A Waterbird Talk as well as The Final Veil Opera world premiere at The Cell Theater, served as assistant conductor for productions with Opera Philadelphia, The Glimmerglass Festival, Juilliard Vocal Arts, Curtis Opera Theater, and Bard Graduate Vocal Arts Program. In the coming season, Micah looks forward to engagements with the Iceland Symphony, Symphony of the Americas, Washington National Opera, Beth Morrison Projects, and returning to Opera Philadelphia.
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.
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; as well producing and conducting a newly commissioned chamber opera, Daughter of God, which was recently presented in open workshop at the Curtis Institute of Music.
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.
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 is represented by Intermusica for worldwide management.