Michael has been the Wellington Chorus Master and Associate Conductor for the New Zealand Opera since 1991. In 2022 and 2023 he was also Chorus Director for Wellington Opera.
He has conducted opera performances for New Zealand Opera, including their four national tours for which he produced reduced orchestrations.
He has also conducted operas for Wellington City Opera, Hamilton Operatic Society, Hawke’s Bay Opera, Wanganui Opera, and Massey University’s Conservatorium of Music, the New Zealand School of Music, Boutique Opera, Days Bay Opera and recently Wellington Comic Opera’s production of Gilbert and Sullivan’s ‘The Pirates of Penzance’.
In 2020 Michael received a Lilburn Trust Fellowship to edit and publish a collection of pre-1950 New Zealand Art Songs. A concert of selections from the collection were toured to Christchurch, Wellington and Auckland by New Zealand Opera in 2022.