The Society is delighted to announce that our Bayreuther Stipendiat for 2019 is Michael Graham.
Michael is a conductor and composer based in Edinburgh. He studied music at the University of Edinburgh, graduating with a bachelor degree in 2013 and a postgraduate masters in 2015. Michael has studied with some of the UK’s leading conducting teachers, including Alasdair Mitchell, Sian Edwards, Gary Walker and Denise Ham.
Early in 2019, he was honoured to be awarded the Wagner Society of Scotland’s Bayreuth Scholarship to fund music studies in Germany this August. He has thrice received Young Conductor’s Awards from the Association of British Choral Directors and recently completed a placement with the Strathclyde University Chamber Choir through the Association’s Apprentice Conductor scheme, with mentorship from Alan Tavener. He was awarded the Ian-Pitt Watson Conducting Prize in 2013 and has also received travel bursaries from the University of Edinburgh and Early Music Forum of Scotland.
He enjoys a portfolio career in music and currently conducts the Bathgate Concert Orchestra, Falkirk Tryst Orchestra, Edinburgh Mandolin and Guitar Orchestra and Edinburgh Recorder Ensemble. Alongside composition and arrangement work, he regularly collaborates in chamber music projects and is active as an accompanist and church musician. He also writes as a reviewer for several music publications including the British Society of Eighteenth Century Studies.
Over the next year, Michael will conduct guest engagements in Nethy Bridge and Cambridge in addition to festival appearances in Edinburgh and Durham.
Applications will shortly open for the 2021 Scholarship.