michael sakir conductor
NEWS
OCTOBER 12, 2017
Michael Sakir will conduct Mozart's The Magic Flute with Shreveport Opera on November 4, 2017 at the Shreveport Riverview Theater. Click here for more information.
AUGUST 29, 2017
Michael Sakir recently appeared as a guest speaker on the Creative Memphis Podcast along with Opera Memphis General Director Ned Canty. Click here to listen.
AUGUST 10, 2017
Click here for Memphis Daily News' interview with Michael Sakir about his new position with Opera Memphis.
JULY 28, 2017
Next month, Michael Sakir will join Opera Memphis as music director. This follows a two-year history with the company as music director for 30 Days of Opera in 2015 and 2016, as well as guest conductor of Jake Heggie's Three Decembers last season. In this new full-time capacity, Sakir will oversee all musical matters, conduct Rossini's L'Italiana in Algeri at the Germantown Performing Arts Center on February 2 & 3, 2018 and Alessandro Scarlatti's Baroque comedy The Triumph of Honor at Playhouse on the Square on April 13 & 14, 2018. Click here to read the official press release.
JULY 19, 2017
Michael Sakir has been selected as a participant for the OPERA America Leadership Intensive Class of 2017. The Leadership Intensive "exemplifies OPERA America’s long-standing commitment to identify and nurture leaders who will advance the creation, presentation and enjoyment of opera for years to come. This program identifies the most promising professionals in the field of opera administration and provides them with a unique experience designed to bolster their leadership capacity and advance their careers." The program will take place August 11-18, 2017 at the OPERA America Center in New York City.
JUNE 8, 2017
Michael Sakir and the Opera Company of Middlebury received unanimous praise for Il trittico. The Addison Independent wrote “the confident and graceful musical direction of Michael Sakir and his full orchestra convey all the variety of Puccini’s rich, cinematic score" while the Times Argus applauded Sakir's "solid and dramatically effective performances."
APRIL 11, 2017
This summer, Michael will return to Eugene, Oregon to conduct the World Premiere production of Anice Thigpen's opera Woman of Salt. Based on the the biblical story of Lot's wife who looks back at the fallen cities of Sodom and Gemorrah before she is turned into salt by God, the one performance will take place on June 23, 2017 at the Wildish Theater.
DECEMBER 4, 2016
Opera Orlando's sold-out fall production of Don Pasquale, conducted by Michael Sakir, will be remounted this season at Vero Beach Opera. The one performance will be Sunday, January 8, 2017 at 3:00pm at the Vero Beach High School Performing Arts Center.
AUGUST 27, 2016
In June 2017, Michael Sakir will make his guest conducting debut with Opera Company of Middlebury in Il trittico, Puccini's epic evening of three one-act operas. Audition information will be posted in late September on the OCM website for auditions in Vermont and NYC in November/December 2016.
AUGUST 14, 2016
Michael Sakir will make his conducting debut at Opera Memphis in the company's 2017 Midtown Opera Festival. He will conduct performances of Jake Heggie's Three Decembers on April 1 & 8 at the Playhouse on the Square and Peter Hilliard's Blue Viola on April 6-8 at the Playhouse on the Square Festival Lounge.
JULY 16, 2016
Michael Sakir was praised by James Sohre of Opera Today in Des Moines Metro Opera's production of Philip Glass's Galileo Galilei: “Under the steady baton of Michael Sakir, every calculated effect was carefully allowed its proper place. Maestro Sakir’s concentration never wavered and he led his amassed forces through the complex writing with insight and skill. He was in full command of the most minute shifts of the sound palette, and he found a wonderful build to the final expansive choral statement."
JUNE 3, 2016
Michael Sakir will return to Orlando Opera this fall to conduct Donizetti's comic masterpiece Don Pasquale. Performances will be November 18 & 20 at the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts.
JUNE 2, 2016
Michael Sakir will be returning to Jake Heggie's Dead Man Walking as Cover Conductor for Washington National Opera's new production in February-March 2017, to be directed by Francesca Zambello and starring mezzo-sopranos Kate Lindsay and Susan Graham and baritone Michael Mayes.
JANUARY 2, 2015
Michael Sakir has been awarded 3rd Place in the 2015 The American Prize in Conducting: Opera Division. The award was based on Northwestern University's Chicago-premiere production of Jake Heggie's Dead Man Walking, which Sakir conducted in February 2015.
DECEMBER 29, 2015
The Chicago Tribune has also named Northwestern University's Dead Man Walking, which Michael Sakir conducted in February 2015, among their Best of 2015 in Classical Music.
DECEMBER 24, 2015
Northwestern University's critically-acclaimed production of Jake Heggie's Dead Man Walking, which Michael Sakir conducted in February 2015, received further accolades as #5 in Chicago Classical Review's Top Ten Performances of 2015.
DECEMBER 8, 2015
This summer, in addition to his return to Des Moines Metro Opera, Michael will make his conducting debut at Hubbard Hall Opera Theater with Puccini's Madama Butterfly. Performances in Cambridge, New York will be August 12-21, 2016.
NOVEMBER 25, 2015
Michael Sakir has been selected as a finalist for the 2015 American Prize in Conducting - Opera/Musical Theater Division.
NOVEMBER 14, 2015
This summer, Michael will return to Des Moines Metro Opera as conductor for Philip Glass's opera Galileo Galilei. The production will be part of DMMO's 2nd Stages Series and will be performed on July 7 & 10, 2016 at the Science Center of Iowa in Downtown Des Moines.
OCTOBER 1, 2015
Michael will join Florida Opera Theatre in Orlando as guest conductor for their double-bill production of Mozart's The Impresario - Mozart's hilarious parody about a struggling opera company choosing between two divas - and Poulenc's surrealist and farcical Les Mamelles de Tiresias in which a wife's breasts float into the air and a husband repopulates a country ravaged by war. Central Florida audiences can enjoy this unique comedic pairing on April 22-24 at the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts.
AUGUST 14, 2015
This fall, Michael Sakir will make his Eugene Opera guest conductor debut in Benjamin Britten's haunting chamber opera The Turn of the Screw. Based on Henry James' famous Gothic novella, performances will be October 30 and November 1, 2015 at the Hult Center's Soreng Theater.
AUGUST 8, 2015
New England critics have unanimously praised Opera North's The Tender Land. James Lowe of the Times Argus wrote that Michael Sakir "conducted a compelling performance" while Nicola Smith of New Hampshire's Valley News wrote that he "conducted deftly and with great delicacy of feeling."
FEBRUARY 27, 2015
Audiences and critics have praised Northwestern University's fully-staged Chicago premiere of Dead Man Walking with overwhelming enthusiasm. The Chicago Tribune's John van Rhein commended "terrific performances in leading roles by gifted master's students from the Bienen school voice program [that] sent me to the program book to make sure I wasn't hearing experienced professional singers." Lawrence A. Johnson of the Chicago Classical Review mentioned that the production was "so well done and completely realized in every respect, that it’s hard to imagine either of Chicago’s two professional opera companies doing better." Johnson also stated that "conductor Michael Sakir led the large forces of the Northwestern University Symphony Orchestra with impressive skill, bringing out the intimate lyrical moments while providing daunting force and power to Heggie’s percussion-led climaxes."
FEBRUARY 12, 2015
Michael Sakir will join Opera in the Ozarks at Inspiration Point for their 65th summer season as conductor of Rossini's comic masterpiece La Cenerentola.
DECEMBER 16, 2014
This summer, Michael Sakir will make his debut at Opera North in Lebanon, New Hampshire as conductor for Aaron Copland's The Tender Land. Performances will be August 6, 9, & 13, 2015 at the Lebanon Opera House.
DECEMBER 3, 2014
In Spring 2015, Michael Sakir will make his conducting debut with American Opera Projects in the touring premiere production of As One. This chamber opera with music by Laura Kaminsky and a libretto by Mark Campbell and Kimberly Reed chronicles the emotional journey of its sole transgender protagonist represented by two singers - a mezzo-soprano and a baritone. Following its world premiere in September 2014 at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Sakir will conduct this touring production on April 7, 2015 at Utah State University's Caine College of the Arts.
AUGUST 21, 2014
Michael Sakir will return to the Boston Opera Collaborative to conduct his fifth production with the company - Handel's Rinaldo. Sakir will also be featured as harpsichordist for the production. Performances will be March 26-29, 2015 at the Benjamin Franklin Institute Auditorium, a one-third sized replica of Boston's historic Symphony Hall.
MARCH 11, 2014
Michael Sakir will return to Santa Fe Opera this summer as cover conductor for the unique double bill of Mozart's The Impresario and Stravinsky's Le Rossignol. He will also serve as children's chorus master for Bizet's Carmen.
JANUARY 14, 2014
Following the success of the Boston Opera Collaborative's New England premiere production of Jake Heggie's Dead Man Walking last season, Michael Sakir will introduce another community to this powerful opera about faith, redemption, and capital punishment. In winter 2015, he will join Northwestern University's Bienen School of Music as guest conductor for the fully staged Chicago premiere of Dead Man Walking. Directed by Northwestern's Director of Opera Michael Ehrman, performances will be February 20, 22, 26 & 28, 2015 at Cahn Auditorium.
MAY 3, 2013
After serving as chorus master and assistant conductor for Florida Grand Opera's La Traviata this past spring, Michael Sakir will join the company in the same capacity next year for its 73rd season. Repertoire will include Marvin David Levy's Mourning Becomes Electra, Verdi's Nabucco, Puccini's Tosca, and Massenet's Thaïs.
MARCH 18, 2013
The Boston Globe praised Dead Man Walking as the Boston Opera Collaborative's "most ambitious and successful production to date." Critic Harlow Robinson also wrote "Sakir coaxed some fine playing from his young players and commanded the troops (22 cast members and a children's chorus) with artistic authority." Click here for the full review.
MARCH 16, 2013
The Boston Musical Intelligencer raved about the Boston Opera Collaborative's Dead Man Walking and music director Michael Sakir: "The conducting was wonderful. There was not a moment where it seemed Michael Sakir was not in control, yet at the same time there was a fluidity of expression which allowed for a lively performance by the singers. Even in moments with the entire cast on stage and the orchestra at full tilt, I never felt the slightest anxiety that the music might be slipping away." Click here for the full review.
MARCH 14, 2013
Click here to read The Boston Globe's feature article about the Boston Opera Collaborative's New England premiere production of Jake Heggie's Dead Man Walking in which music director Michael Sakir and stage director David Gram are interviewed extensively by Globe correspondent David Weininger about the life-changing power of opera.
JANUARY 29, 2013
This spring, Michael Sakir will join Florida Grand Opera as chorus master and assistant conductor for La Traviata. Performances will be April 20-27 in Miami and May 2-5 in Fort Lauderdale.
JANUARY 24, 2013
Michael Sakir will join the music staff of Santa Fe Opera's upcoming summer season. He will serve as cover conductor for the world premiere of Theo Morrison's Oscar, starring renowned countertenor David Daniels as English author & poet Oscar Wilde. He will also be working on Offenbach's charming operetta La Grande-Duchesse de Gérolstein starring acclaimed mezzo-soprano Susan Graham in the title role.
Michael Sakir will conduct Mozart's The Magic Flute with Shreveport Opera on November 4, 2017 at the Shreveport Riverview Theater. Click here for more information.
AUGUST 29, 2017
Michael Sakir recently appeared as a guest speaker on the Creative Memphis Podcast along with Opera Memphis General Director Ned Canty. Click here to listen.
AUGUST 10, 2017
Click here for Memphis Daily News' interview with Michael Sakir about his new position with Opera Memphis.
JULY 28, 2017
Next month, Michael Sakir will join Opera Memphis as music director. This follows a two-year history with the company as music director for 30 Days of Opera in 2015 and 2016, as well as guest conductor of Jake Heggie's Three Decembers last season. In this new full-time capacity, Sakir will oversee all musical matters, conduct Rossini's L'Italiana in Algeri at the Germantown Performing Arts Center on February 2 & 3, 2018 and Alessandro Scarlatti's Baroque comedy The Triumph of Honor at Playhouse on the Square on April 13 & 14, 2018. Click here to read the official press release.
JULY 19, 2017
Michael Sakir has been selected as a participant for the OPERA America Leadership Intensive Class of 2017. The Leadership Intensive "exemplifies OPERA America’s long-standing commitment to identify and nurture leaders who will advance the creation, presentation and enjoyment of opera for years to come. This program identifies the most promising professionals in the field of opera administration and provides them with a unique experience designed to bolster their leadership capacity and advance their careers." The program will take place August 11-18, 2017 at the OPERA America Center in New York City.
JUNE 8, 2017
Michael Sakir and the Opera Company of Middlebury received unanimous praise for Il trittico. The Addison Independent wrote “the confident and graceful musical direction of Michael Sakir and his full orchestra convey all the variety of Puccini’s rich, cinematic score" while the Times Argus applauded Sakir's "solid and dramatically effective performances."
APRIL 11, 2017
This summer, Michael will return to Eugene, Oregon to conduct the World Premiere production of Anice Thigpen's opera Woman of Salt. Based on the the biblical story of Lot's wife who looks back at the fallen cities of Sodom and Gemorrah before she is turned into salt by God, the one performance will take place on June 23, 2017 at the Wildish Theater.
DECEMBER 4, 2016
Opera Orlando's sold-out fall production of Don Pasquale, conducted by Michael Sakir, will be remounted this season at Vero Beach Opera. The one performance will be Sunday, January 8, 2017 at 3:00pm at the Vero Beach High School Performing Arts Center.
AUGUST 27, 2016
In June 2017, Michael Sakir will make his guest conducting debut with Opera Company of Middlebury in Il trittico, Puccini's epic evening of three one-act operas. Audition information will be posted in late September on the OCM website for auditions in Vermont and NYC in November/December 2016.
AUGUST 14, 2016
Michael Sakir will make his conducting debut at Opera Memphis in the company's 2017 Midtown Opera Festival. He will conduct performances of Jake Heggie's Three Decembers on April 1 & 8 at the Playhouse on the Square and Peter Hilliard's Blue Viola on April 6-8 at the Playhouse on the Square Festival Lounge.
JULY 16, 2016
Michael Sakir was praised by James Sohre of Opera Today in Des Moines Metro Opera's production of Philip Glass's Galileo Galilei: “Under the steady baton of Michael Sakir, every calculated effect was carefully allowed its proper place. Maestro Sakir’s concentration never wavered and he led his amassed forces through the complex writing with insight and skill. He was in full command of the most minute shifts of the sound palette, and he found a wonderful build to the final expansive choral statement."
JUNE 3, 2016
Michael Sakir will return to Orlando Opera this fall to conduct Donizetti's comic masterpiece Don Pasquale. Performances will be November 18 & 20 at the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts.
JUNE 2, 2016
Michael Sakir will be returning to Jake Heggie's Dead Man Walking as Cover Conductor for Washington National Opera's new production in February-March 2017, to be directed by Francesca Zambello and starring mezzo-sopranos Kate Lindsay and Susan Graham and baritone Michael Mayes.
JANUARY 2, 2015
Michael Sakir has been awarded 3rd Place in the 2015 The American Prize in Conducting: Opera Division. The award was based on Northwestern University's Chicago-premiere production of Jake Heggie's Dead Man Walking, which Sakir conducted in February 2015.
DECEMBER 29, 2015
The Chicago Tribune has also named Northwestern University's Dead Man Walking, which Michael Sakir conducted in February 2015, among their Best of 2015 in Classical Music.
DECEMBER 24, 2015
Northwestern University's critically-acclaimed production of Jake Heggie's Dead Man Walking, which Michael Sakir conducted in February 2015, received further accolades as #5 in Chicago Classical Review's Top Ten Performances of 2015.
DECEMBER 8, 2015
This summer, in addition to his return to Des Moines Metro Opera, Michael will make his conducting debut at Hubbard Hall Opera Theater with Puccini's Madama Butterfly. Performances in Cambridge, New York will be August 12-21, 2016.
NOVEMBER 25, 2015
Michael Sakir has been selected as a finalist for the 2015 American Prize in Conducting - Opera/Musical Theater Division.
NOVEMBER 14, 2015
This summer, Michael will return to Des Moines Metro Opera as conductor for Philip Glass's opera Galileo Galilei. The production will be part of DMMO's 2nd Stages Series and will be performed on July 7 & 10, 2016 at the Science Center of Iowa in Downtown Des Moines.
OCTOBER 1, 2015
Michael will join Florida Opera Theatre in Orlando as guest conductor for their double-bill production of Mozart's The Impresario - Mozart's hilarious parody about a struggling opera company choosing between two divas - and Poulenc's surrealist and farcical Les Mamelles de Tiresias in which a wife's breasts float into the air and a husband repopulates a country ravaged by war. Central Florida audiences can enjoy this unique comedic pairing on April 22-24 at the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts.
AUGUST 14, 2015
This fall, Michael Sakir will make his Eugene Opera guest conductor debut in Benjamin Britten's haunting chamber opera The Turn of the Screw. Based on Henry James' famous Gothic novella, performances will be October 30 and November 1, 2015 at the Hult Center's Soreng Theater.
AUGUST 8, 2015
New England critics have unanimously praised Opera North's The Tender Land. James Lowe of the Times Argus wrote that Michael Sakir "conducted a compelling performance" while Nicola Smith of New Hampshire's Valley News wrote that he "conducted deftly and with great delicacy of feeling."
FEBRUARY 27, 2015
Audiences and critics have praised Northwestern University's fully-staged Chicago premiere of Dead Man Walking with overwhelming enthusiasm. The Chicago Tribune's John van Rhein commended "terrific performances in leading roles by gifted master's students from the Bienen school voice program [that] sent me to the program book to make sure I wasn't hearing experienced professional singers." Lawrence A. Johnson of the Chicago Classical Review mentioned that the production was "so well done and completely realized in every respect, that it’s hard to imagine either of Chicago’s two professional opera companies doing better." Johnson also stated that "conductor Michael Sakir led the large forces of the Northwestern University Symphony Orchestra with impressive skill, bringing out the intimate lyrical moments while providing daunting force and power to Heggie’s percussion-led climaxes."
FEBRUARY 12, 2015
Michael Sakir will join Opera in the Ozarks at Inspiration Point for their 65th summer season as conductor of Rossini's comic masterpiece La Cenerentola.
DECEMBER 16, 2014
This summer, Michael Sakir will make his debut at Opera North in Lebanon, New Hampshire as conductor for Aaron Copland's The Tender Land. Performances will be August 6, 9, & 13, 2015 at the Lebanon Opera House.
DECEMBER 3, 2014
In Spring 2015, Michael Sakir will make his conducting debut with American Opera Projects in the touring premiere production of As One. This chamber opera with music by Laura Kaminsky and a libretto by Mark Campbell and Kimberly Reed chronicles the emotional journey of its sole transgender protagonist represented by two singers - a mezzo-soprano and a baritone. Following its world premiere in September 2014 at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Sakir will conduct this touring production on April 7, 2015 at Utah State University's Caine College of the Arts.
AUGUST 21, 2014
Michael Sakir will return to the Boston Opera Collaborative to conduct his fifth production with the company - Handel's Rinaldo. Sakir will also be featured as harpsichordist for the production. Performances will be March 26-29, 2015 at the Benjamin Franklin Institute Auditorium, a one-third sized replica of Boston's historic Symphony Hall.
MARCH 11, 2014
Michael Sakir will return to Santa Fe Opera this summer as cover conductor for the unique double bill of Mozart's The Impresario and Stravinsky's Le Rossignol. He will also serve as children's chorus master for Bizet's Carmen.
JANUARY 14, 2014
Following the success of the Boston Opera Collaborative's New England premiere production of Jake Heggie's Dead Man Walking last season, Michael Sakir will introduce another community to this powerful opera about faith, redemption, and capital punishment. In winter 2015, he will join Northwestern University's Bienen School of Music as guest conductor for the fully staged Chicago premiere of Dead Man Walking. Directed by Northwestern's Director of Opera Michael Ehrman, performances will be February 20, 22, 26 & 28, 2015 at Cahn Auditorium.
MAY 3, 2013
After serving as chorus master and assistant conductor for Florida Grand Opera's La Traviata this past spring, Michael Sakir will join the company in the same capacity next year for its 73rd season. Repertoire will include Marvin David Levy's Mourning Becomes Electra, Verdi's Nabucco, Puccini's Tosca, and Massenet's Thaïs.
MARCH 18, 2013
The Boston Globe praised Dead Man Walking as the Boston Opera Collaborative's "most ambitious and successful production to date." Critic Harlow Robinson also wrote "Sakir coaxed some fine playing from his young players and commanded the troops (22 cast members and a children's chorus) with artistic authority." Click here for the full review.
MARCH 16, 2013
The Boston Musical Intelligencer raved about the Boston Opera Collaborative's Dead Man Walking and music director Michael Sakir: "The conducting was wonderful. There was not a moment where it seemed Michael Sakir was not in control, yet at the same time there was a fluidity of expression which allowed for a lively performance by the singers. Even in moments with the entire cast on stage and the orchestra at full tilt, I never felt the slightest anxiety that the music might be slipping away." Click here for the full review.
MARCH 14, 2013
Click here to read The Boston Globe's feature article about the Boston Opera Collaborative's New England premiere production of Jake Heggie's Dead Man Walking in which music director Michael Sakir and stage director David Gram are interviewed extensively by Globe correspondent David Weininger about the life-changing power of opera.
JANUARY 29, 2013
This spring, Michael Sakir will join Florida Grand Opera as chorus master and assistant conductor for La Traviata. Performances will be April 20-27 in Miami and May 2-5 in Fort Lauderdale.
JANUARY 24, 2013
Michael Sakir will join the music staff of Santa Fe Opera's upcoming summer season. He will serve as cover conductor for the world premiere of Theo Morrison's Oscar, starring renowned countertenor David Daniels as English author & poet Oscar Wilde. He will also be working on Offenbach's charming operetta La Grande-Duchesse de Gérolstein starring acclaimed mezzo-soprano Susan Graham in the title role.
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