MICHAEL CHING

A highly acclaimed and prolific composer, and a noted conductor, Michael Ching has written works performed by companies and orchestras throughout the United States. Described as “compelling,” “ provocative,” and “uplifting,” with passages of “sheer poetry,” Mr. Ching’s compositions have been presented by OperaDelaware, the Lyric Opera of Kansas City, Opera Memphis, Chicago Opera Theatre, Opera, Cincinnati Opera, Indianapolis Opera, Dayton Opera, Triangle Opera Theater, , Pittsburgh Opera Center, Fargo Moorhead Opera, Anchorage Opera, Texas Opera Theater, the Atlanta Symphony, Rochester Philharmonic, Virginia Symphony, North Carolina Symphony, Memphis Symphony, San Jose Chamber Orchestra, and the Charlotte Symphony, among others.

Included in his body of operatic works are Corps Of Discovery, an opera commissioned by the which received its world premiere in May 2003; Buoso's Ghost, a sequel to performed many times and most recently by Lake George Opera, Amarillo Opera, and Opera New Jersey; King of the Clouds, an educational work commissioned by the Dayton Opera andOut of the Rain, a companion piece to King of the Clouds. His opera, Faith,was performed at the World Science Fiction Convention (WorldCon). Mr. Ching’s most recent operatic composition, Midsummer Night’s Dream, an “a cappella opera,” received its World Premiere in 2011 in a coproduction between Opera Memphis, Memphis' professional theatre, Playhouse on the Square and Delta Cappella. His most recent operatic commission Slaying the Dragon was premieredin 2012.

His comic one act opera, Speed Dating Tonight, premiered at the Brevard Music Center's Janiec Opera Company in 2013. Mr. Ching’s works have received several NEA grants and funding by Meet the Composer. One of the most prominent students of American composers and , Mr. Ching is the current President of the Douglas Moore Fund for American Opera which provides fellowships for young composers.

Recently appointed music director of Nickel City Opera, Mo. Ching has led acclaimed performances of numerous (including his own works) together with operetta and musical theater productions for companies throughout the United States. He has worked with Florida Grand Opera, Hawaii Opera Theatre, Opera New Jersey, Nashville Opera, Opera North Carolina, Virginia Opera, and Opera Memphis, where he also served as artistic director. Mo. Ching has performed the works of varied composers ranging from Gluck to Wargo, Hummon and Legg. Operatic repertoire performed comprises Orpheus, Così fan tutte, Don Giovanni, Madama Butterfly, Carmen, Rigoletto, Il Barbiere di Siviglia, La Traviata, Cavalleria Rusticana, I Pagliacci, Werther, Les Contes d’Hoffmann, Lucia di Lammermoor, , Faust, Turandot, Un Ballo in Maschera, Il Trovatore, La Bohème, Gianni Schicchi, Buoso’s Ghost, Roméo and Juliette, La Cenerentola, Tosca, Faust, Surrender Road, The Informer, Different Fields, Claudia LeGare among others. Mo. Ching has also led performances of the works of Gilbert and Sullivan (The Mikado and Pirates of Penzance), Richard Rogers’s The King and I and South Pacific, and Irving Berlin’s Annie Get Your Gun and Frederick Loewe’s My Fair Lady.

Recent and upcoming projects for Mo. Ching include conducting assignments in Madame Butterfly for Amarillo Opera, Barber of Seville for Shreveport Opera, and La Bohème for Nickel City Opera. He looks forward to Don Pasquale for Nickel City Opera in 2013 and Lucia di Lammemoor in a return engagement with Amarillo Opera also in 2013.