Michael Rossi
Artistic Director and Founder
Perhaps the most memorable work Thursday evening, however, was conductor Michael Rossi's lovingly sculpted phrasing of Mozart's astonishing orchestration.
Joe Banno- Washington Post
Washington National Opera Review Le Nozze di Figaro
Michael Rossi has conducted the world's leading organizations including the Philadelphia Orchestra, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Washington National Opera, Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra, and the Orquesta Sinfónica de Xalapa.
As an opera conductor, he made his international debut conducting Plácido Domingo and the Chinese National Opera Orchestra in Beijing in a live television broadcast and his Washington National Opera Main Stage Debut conducting Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro. Since then, he has led the Washington National Opera on numerous occasions with performances of La Boheme, two productions of Hansel & Gretel, the first National Endowment of the Arts Opera Honors, and the orchestra’s Strathmore Hall Debut concert. He made his Carnegie Hall debut conducting the premiere of Marcos Galvany’s opera Oh My Son and recorded the album.
As an educator, Michael has founded the Miami Music Festival which educates over 300 young professional musicians each summer for 6 weeks with the world's leading performers and educators. In only 10 years time, Michael has expanded the season to include a professional Alumni Division, 5 full opera productions, 4 Symphonic Concerts, a Professional Wagner Institute, solo recitals /chamber music performances, and a pioneering and intensive Career Institute that he teaches to entrepreneurial participants during the summer session.
In July 2022, Michael produced the first full opera in a fully immersive theater setting in a groundbreaking production of "Das Rheingold" by Richard Wagner. The production defied convention and delivered a truly unprecedented audiovisual spectacle. He has since delved into the technology’s possibilities, creating several audiovisual concerts in different venues which have garnered immense praise and have sparked a strong desire for more projection activations in the community.
Upcoming Engagements include New Year’s Day Orchestra Concert in Lummus Park and Richard Wagner’s Die Walküre in July 2024.
Recent conducting appearances have included Wagner Operas Die Walküre, Lohengrin, and Flying Dutchman with notable singers such as Linda Watson, Christine Goerke, Alan Held and Christine Brewer, Ibrahim Maalouf’s 1st Symphony at the Kennedy Center and La Seine Musicale in Paris, the Kennedy Center’s Ballet Across America where he conducted the Miami City Ballet and Los Angeles Dance Project and the Boise Philharmonic with the famous Broadway Tenor, Doug Labrecque.
Michael graduated from the Washington National Opera’s Domingo-Cafritz Young Artist Program, having been selected for the program by world-renowned tenor Plácido Domingo. As a Cover Conductor for the Philadelphia Orchestra he has assisted world-renowned conductors including Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, Stéphane Denève, Manfred Honeck, Itzhak Perlman, and Vladimir Jurowski. Michael was awarded a fellowship to the American Academy of Conducting at Aspen in 2009 and 2010 where he studied with David Zinman, Robert Spano, Hugh Wolff and Larry Rachleff. He was selected by Kurt Masur to participate in the Kurt Masur Conducting Seminar at the Manhattan School of Music in 2010 and 2012. Mr. Rossi is following the path of many conductors who began their careers first as instrumentalists. At the age of 22, he won the position of 2nd Trumpet in the Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra.
In July 2022, Rossi produced the first full opera in a fully immersive theater setting in a groundbreaking production of "Das Rheingold" by Richard Wagner. The production defied convention and delivered a truly unprecedented audiovisual spectacle. He has since delved into the technology’s possibilities, creating several audiovisual concerts in different venues which have garnered immense praise and have sparked a strong desire for more projection activations in the community.