Michael Christie
Michael Christie first 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. Following the competition, he was invited to become an apprentice conductor with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.
Born in Buffalo, New York, in 1974, Christie has developed an exceptional career spanning conducting posts on three continents. Mr. Christie has been consistently identified among the most talented and most closely watched conductors of his generation. Michael Christie was appointed Music Director of the Colorado Music Festival in 2000. During his first six seasons, he increased festival audiences through his enthusiastic leadership, innovative programming and widely acclaimed audience-building initiatives.
In September 2001, Mr. Christie was appointed Chief Conductor and Artistic Director of the Queensland Orchestra, the youngest person ever to hold a music director post with a major Australian symphony orchestra. Michael Christie became the Virginia G. Piper Music Director of the Phoenix Symphony and Music Director of the Brooklyn Philharmonic in September 2005.
He has enjoyed performing with major orchestras of all five Scandinavian countries, the UK, and radio symphonies in the Netherlands and Germany. He has conducted numerous U.S. and Canadian orchestrates and has conducted opera performances with the Opernhaus in Zurich, the Finnish National Opera and the Rotterdam Philharmonic.
Most seasons he conducts both opera and ballet performances at the Zurich Opera. He has also worked with the Queensland Opera where he made his debut conducting Cosi Fan Tutte. In March 2004, he made his Netherlands opera debut with the Rotterdam Philharmonic.
Michael Christie was educated in the public school system in Buffalo and West Seneca, New York and graduated from the Oberlin College Conservatory of Music with a bachelor's degree in trumpet performance. He is married to Alexis, a physician, and they have a daughter, Sinclair, born in 2008.
To learn about more about Boulder's 'New Pioneers', check out our previous Award Winners page.
