ABOUT
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.
An active symphonic and opera conductor, Micah has collaborated with notable ensembles including the Iceland Symphony, Symphony of the Americas, San Diego Symphony, The Spoleto Festival Orchestra, The Orchestra Now, the Dallas Opera Orchestra, and the Curtis Symphony Orchestra; served as Music Director for productions of Argento’s A Waterbird Talk with the Musicians of Ma’alwyck and JL Marlor’s The Final Veil Opera world premiere at The Cell Theater, served as assistant/cover conductor for productions with Washington National Opera, Opera Philadelphia, The Glimmerglass Festival, Beth Morrison Projects, Juilliard Vocal Arts, Curtis Opera Theater, and Bard College. In summer 2025 she looks forward to joining the Tanglewood conducting seminar, assisting Marin Alsop in the Cliburn Competition finals with the Fort Worth Symphony, and Gianandrea Noseda with the National Youth Symphony on their summer tour around Asia.
An avid performer and lover of chamber music, Micah has appeared as a conductor and/or singer with Chamber Music Northwest, Philharmonic Society of Orange County, Friends of Music Concerts Inc, 92nd Street Y, Phoenix Chamber Music Society, and 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 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 is represented by Intermusica for worldwide management.
Downloadable bios of various lengths available upon request.