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The American choral conductor and music pedagogue, Michael Thomas Driscoll, studied at Windham High School (Class of 1993). He began conducting as an undergraduate at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI), directing a male a cappella group for three years. At WPI he also served as Assistant Director of the WPI Men’s Glee Club and Director of the WPI Concert Choir. He graduated from WPI in 1997 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering and a Minor in Music. He earned an Master of Science dergree in Electrical Engineering at WPI (1999) and worked as a software development engineer at Data Translate, Inc., Marlboro, Massachusetts for two years (1999-2001) prior before moving to a career in music.He earned his Master of Music degree in Choral Conducting from the New England Conservatory (2003) and his DMA in Choral Conducting from Boston University (2016). Past conducting teachers include Simon Carrington, Ann Howard Jones, and David Hoose.
Since 2003, Michael Driscoll is Director of Choirs at Brookline High School, a position he has held since September 2003. At Brookline High School, he directs three choirs, advises three student-run a cappella ensembles, teaches Advanced Placement music theory and class piano. In the fall of 2013, he was appointed Music Director of the Andover Choral Society based in Andover, Massachusetts. Since 2013, he is the Lead Musicianship Teacher for the Handel and Haydn Society's Vocal Arts Program for children and high school students. With Handel and Haydn Society he develops and oversees the musicianship curriculum and trains and supervises the musicianship faculty.
Michael Driscoll was Music Director of Boston Saengerfest Men’s Chorus for twelve years (since 2001). He served as Assistant Conductor of the Masterworks Chorale for four years under the direction of Allen Lannom (2000-2004). He has directed the choirs at Emerson College and the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth (since 2004) and has guest conducted Boston’s Chorus pro Musica in a program featuring the New England première of Jonathan Dove’s Köthener Messe.
Michael Driscoll is Past-President of the Massachusetts division of the American Choral Directors Association (MassACDA). He served as the Auditioned Choirs Chair for the ACDA Eastern Division’s 2016 conference in Boston. He is a passionate advocate for teaching music literacy skills in the choral classroom and has given many presentations on the subject at professional conferences including at MassACDA Summer Conferences, at the ACDA Eastern Division conference, at the Massachusetts Music Educators Association’s All-State Conferences and at the National Association for Music Education’s All-Eastern conference. He has published two articles entitled “But I Don’t Have Time! A Case For Teaching Music Literacy” (part 1 & part 2) in the Mass Music News magazine for music educators throughout Massachusetts. He has been involved with the MMEA Eastern Division as chorus manager of the high school festival and composed the sight-singing portion of the vocal exam for many years. As a service to other music educators, he provides a number of free music literacy resources on his website. He currently lives in Boston, Massachusetts. |
