Michael McGaghie

Michael McGaghie is Professor of Music and Director of Choral Activities at Macalester College, where he conducts the Macalester Concert Choir and Chorale and teaches courses in music history, musicianship, and conducting. He also directs the Isthmus Vocal Ensemble (Madison, WI) and the Harvard Glee Club Young Alumni Chorus. A strong advocate for the music of living composers, he has commissioned and conducted premieres of works by Dominick Argento, Saunder Choi, Dominick DiOrio, Jocelyn Hagen, Dale Trumbore, and Jake Runestad, among others. Regionally, he has served as regular guest conductor of the Twin Cities chorus Singers in Accord and as
an ensemble tenor within the Minnesota Beethoven Festival Chorale. He remains active as a clinician throughout the United States and abroad.
Under his direction, the Concert Choir was selected to perform at the American Choral Directors Association’s 2016 Midwestern conference, the choir’s first such invitation in nearly fifty years. He was one of seven Americans selected for the ACDA International Conductors Exchange Program in China, where he taught and conducted at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music and Fudan University. Having held leadership positions within ACDA of Minnesota, he now serves as Treasurer of the National Collegiate Choral Organization.
Prior to his Macalester appointment, Dr. McGaghie served on the conducting faculties of Harvard University and The Boston Conservatory at Berklee. He is deeply grateful for his conducting mentors, Jameson Marvin and Ann Howard Jones.