Michael Strauss

Michael Strauss joined the Conservatory in 1991, and is an associate professor of music teaching a variety of courses in vocal studies, including classes on German and Italian song repertoire, recitativo, aria, piano vocal duo, and drama in the score. 

Strauss has given master classes throughout Greater Boston, including at MIT, and has been heard in recital at various Boston venues, including the Museum of Fine Arts and WGBH radio, and as well as in New York at the Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall. He has also been a pianist with Boston Music Theater, including on a Europen tour with concerts at the embassies in Brussels and Paris and in Russia at the Spaso House and Rachmaninoff Hall. 

A native of Cape Town, South Africa, where he studied piano performance at the University of Cape Town, earning a B.Mus. and the Sunny Cohen prize for music, Strauss subsequently moved to Johannesburg, where he taught piano and chamber music and was the head vocal coach and chorusmaster of the opera department of Wits University. As a performer, Strauss was a frequent soloist and accompanist on radio and television, and he has been the featured concerto soloist with all the main orchestras of the country.

Strauss is currently also on the faculty of New England Conservatory, where he serves as vocal coach for the graduate opera program, giving classes, music-directing scenes and programs, and coaching the mainstage operas. 

Since 2011, he has served as the music director of the International Performing Arts Institute in Germany; based in Kiefersfelden and Munich, this summer program offers intensive operatic training for young emerging artists from the United States and abroad.