Michael Ching

Michael Ching (born September 29, 1958) is an American composer, conductor, and music administrator. A prolific and eclectic composer, he is best known nationally as the composer of innovative operas, including his a cappella adaptation of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream (2011). His other major operas include Buoso’s Ghost (1996), Corps of Discovery (2003), Slaying the Dragon (2012), Speed Dating Tonight! (2013), Alice Ryley (2015), and Notes on Viardot (2024). According to Opera America, he is one of the top 10 most-produced living North American opera or music-theater composers. He has written the librettos of many of his own operas, and has done so for nearly all of his operas composed after 2012. He is on the board of directors of the National Opera Association. Early life and education Michael Ching was born in 1958 in Honolulu, Hawaii. Before he was one year old his family left Honolulu, and he grew up in New Orleans and Saint Paul, Minnesota. Ching started piano at the age of six and was quite skilled at it, at one point considering a career as a concert pianist. In addition, he studied flute, violin, and oboe, mostly for the sake of composition. He started composing