Michael C. Haigler is a conductor of choral, orchestral, opera, and church music, a frequent organ and piano recitalist, published author and composer, vocal coach, and teacher.  He holds a magna cum laude performance degree from the Eastman School of Music where he studied with pianists Barry Snyder and Anton Nel, and conductors David Effron, Donald Hunsberger, and Donald Neuen, and is an alumnus of the Interlochen Center for the Arts, and International Fine Arts Institute.  He currently serves as Music Director at Christ Church in Oyster Bay, Long Island, home to the Christ Church Festival Orchestra with which he has conducted masterworks such as Requiems by Mozart, Fauré, Brahms, and Rutter, and symphonies such as Mendelssohn's Italian, Beethoven's Ninth, and Mahler's Resurrection (complete).  He also conducts regularly with the Seniors Orchestral Society of New York, the Bronx Opera Company, and at Festival 56, Illinois’ largest summer theater festival, which he helped found in 2004.  Other recent credits include Atlanta Opera, Sarasota Opera, (FL) the Sarasota Pops Orchestra, Virginia Opera, Knoxville Opera (TN), and Cartersville Opera (GA).  In 2001 he was a North American finalist in the Maazel-Vilar International Conducting Competition, and has also won many awards as a pianist, including the Atlanta Steinway Society competition, and state and regional divisions of MTNA’s Yamaha Competition.  As an accomplished, eqaully at home with improvisation and standard repertoire, he became and Associate of the American Guild of Organists (AAGO) in 2015, achieving the highest score in the nation on the written portion of the certification exam.  Mr. Haigler was born in Atlanta, Georgia, and now lives in Manhattan with his wife, pianist Arielle Levioff.