“Michael Christie is a director open to adventure and challenge…his programming is fresh and adventurous, and he has made himself as accessible as can be.” – The New York Times

GRAMMY® award-winning conductor Michael Christie is an innovative conductor, at home in both the symphonic and opera worlds, who is focused on making the audience experience entertaining, enlightening and enriching. 

Michael Christie won a GRAMMY® award (Best Opera Recording) for the world premiere recording of Mason Bates’ The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs with The Santa Fe Opera (PENTATONE). He also led the world premiere performances at The Santa Fe Opera “with suave assurance” (San Francisco Chronicle) and “preside[d] over an expertly executed performance” (The Financial Times). 

Michael Christie is the Artistic and Music Director of the New West Symphony, serving the Ventura County region in Southern California. He was recently appointed the Ruth Blaustein Rosenberg Artistic Director of Ensembles at the Peabody Conservatory. In this role he will lead the programming and direction of the Conservatory’s instrumental and vocal ensembles beginning in fall 2026. He will make his Metropolitan Opera debut leading performances of Mason Bates’ The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay in February 2026.

Recently, Christie conducted the world premiere of The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay at Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music and Journey to Valhalla at the Lyric Opera of Kansas City. He also led San Francisco Opera’s production of The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs, composed by Mason Bates with a libretto by Mark Campbell, as well as productions at the Calgary Opera, Lyric Opera of Kansas City, Atlanta Opera and Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music.

Other recent engagements included conducting two concerts at the Peabody Conservatory of The Johns Hopkins University and two performances with the Edmonton Symphony in Alberta, Canada featuring guitarist Jason Vieaux.

Deeply committed to new music, Christie has championed commissions by Mark Adamo, Mason Bates, Michael Daugherty, Kui Dong, Osvaldo Golijov, Mark Grey, Marjan Mozetich, Stephen Paulus, Kevin Puts, and more. In 2018, he led the world premiere of Huang Ruo’s An American Soldier at Opera Theatre of St. Louis. He was named “a champion of fresh work” by The Denver Post and “a top-notch conductor of new works” by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Christie was featured in Opera News in 2012 as one of 25 people believed to “break out and become major forces in the field in the coming decade.” At Minnesota Opera, Christie led 24 productions over eight years, with six seasons as its first-ever Music Director (2012-18). Christie’s career, spanning more than 25 years, has included serving as Music Director of the Phoenix Symphony (2005-13), Brooklyn Philharmonic (2005-10) and Colorado Music Festival (2000-13), plus Chief Conductor of the Queensland Orchestra (2001-04), as well as appearances with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, National Symphony Orchestra, Civic Orchestra of Chicago, Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, Rhode Island Philharmonic, and the Symphonies of Dallas, St. Louis, Atlanta, Houston, Minnesota, Oregon, Indianapolis, Cincinnati, and Santa Rosa. He is Music Director Emeritus of the Colorado Music Festival.

Christie’s European engagements have included leading the Rotterdam Philharmonic, DSO Berlin, Orchestre National de Lille, Swedish and Netherlands Radio Symphony, City of Birmingham Symphony, NDR Hannover Orchestra and the Czech Philharmonic.

Michael Christie came to international attention in 1995 when he was awarded a special prize for “Outstanding Potential” at the First International Sibelius Conductors’ Competition in Helsinki. He was then invited to be an apprentice with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra where he worked with Daniel Barenboim as well as the Berlin State Opera. Christie graduated from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music with a bachelor’s degree in trumpet performance. He lives in the Twin Cities with his wife, Alexis, a physician, and their two children.