Michael Ching (born September 29, 1958)Cuyler, Antonio Christopher. "The Career Paths of Non-European-American Executive Opera Administrators in the United States". Florida State University, 2007. pp. 59–64. 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).Waleson, Heidi. "A Remarkably Inventive A Cappella Premiere". The Wall Street Journal. January 25, 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. His father was an accomplished amateur pianist and a college professor in theater and speech. Ching later recalled, "He played everything from Chopin to Dave Brubeck transcriptions. He wanted to go into music but his family discouraged him."Strauss, Elaine. "Summer Arts Preview" . Princeton Info. June 14, 2006.
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 as a child, and by the time he reached high school he had studied composition at Interlochen and also had private composition instruction.
He attended Duke University on a composition scholarship, studying with Robert Ward and Iain Hamilton.Ching, Michael. "Remembering Robert Ward (1917-2013)". New Music Box. April 12, 2013.Mobley, Mark. "Remembering Pulitzer Prize-Winning Composer Robert Ward". NPR. April 3, 2013. He graduated in 1980, and his senior project was a one-act opera retelling a vampire story set in New Orleans, which received a small performance at Duke.
Career Ching began his career as a National Opera Institute apprentice 1980–1981 at the Houston Grand Opera Studio, where he was involved in the company's productions and continued his composition studies with composer Carlisle Floyd."Career Guide: Latest Additions & Changes" . Central Opera Service Bulletin. Vol. 22, No. 4., Winter/Spring 1981. p. 34.Ching, Michael. "Carlisle Floyd". Opera and Beyond. September 28, 2011."Studio Alumni". Houston Grand Opera. Retrieved October 8, 2017. From 1981 to 1985 he held increasingly responsible positions at the Greater Miami Opera/Florida Grand Opera.Green, Judith. . Cox News Service. July 10, 1999."Opera America Salon Series: Exploring American Voices. Season Closes With Excerpts From Ching's A Midsummer Night's Dream — An A Cappella Opera". Opera America. August 3, 2009. He subsequently held conductor and executive director positions at venues including Texas Opera Theatre,"In the News". Opera. December 1980. Chautauqua Opera,"Speed Dating Tonight! Resource Guide" . Amarillo Opera. 2014. and Triangle Music Theater.Ridge, M.D. and Josh Jacobs "Classical Notes". Virginia Beach Sun. January 15, 1992.
In 1989 he was appointed Assistant to the General Director of Virginia Opera. He was subsequently the company's Associate Artistic Director from 1991 through mid 1992."People". Daily Press. January 11, 1992.
In 1992 Ching joined Opera Memphis as Artistic Director, a position he held through 2010. He was the opera's General Director for most of those years as well.Devin, Jonathan. "Mr. Ching's Opus: Opera Memphis seeks to fill director’s shoes". Memphis Daily News. March 30, 2010.
He left Opera Memphis for Iowa in the spring of 2010 when his wife Barbara, a university professor and a native Iowan, was named chair of the English department at Iowa State University.Davis, Chris. "Michael Ching Leaves Opera Memphis". Memphis Flyer. March 12, 2010. He told the Memphis Daily News, "Barbara and I always had a plan that I would be able to stay home and write and she would be the one carrying the economic ball. The time was right and the job came through."
In addition to being a freelance composer and conductor, Ching is also Chairman of the Douglas Moore Fund for American Opera, which supports emerging opera creators.Douglas Moore Fund – Board List. Retrieved October 8, 2017.Douglas Moore Fund for American Opera. Razoo.com. Retrieved October 8, 2017. He was Music Director of Nickel City Opera in Buffalo, New York, from 2012 to 2017,. Nickel City Opera. Retrieved September 27, 2017. and Music Director of Amarillo Opera in Amarillo, Texas, from September 2016 to September 2020.Michael Ching at LinkedIn. Retrieved October 9, 2017.
In 2019 he was elected to the board of directors of the National Opera Association."Board of Directors". National Opera Association. Retrieved February 24, 2019."Michael Ching". New Music USA. Retrieved February 24, 2019.
Major compositions Ching's Piano Concerto, commissioned by the San Jose Chamber Orchestra, had its well-received premiere, performed by Craig Bohmler, in 1997. The San Jose Mercury wrote, "The concerto has the kind of instant appeal to listeners that every composer must dream of.... When it was finished, the crowd rose in a spontaneous ovation.""S.J. Chamber Season Ends on a High Note". San Jose Mercury News. May 20, 1997. The concerto was recorded and released on the orchestra’s first commercial CD.. Arizona Opera. Accessed August 12, 2014.Ching, Michael. Piano concerto (CD). 1997. Stanford University Library Holdings.
The San Jose Chamber Orchestra subsequently also commissioned and premiered his Psyche and Eros, a 45-minute composition for narrator and string orchestra, written in collaboration with storyteller Margaret Wolfson, in 2000. Dan Leeson in San Francisco Classical Voice wrote that "The Ching/Wolfson collaboration is simply marvelous.... Ching is a gifted composer capable of turning out well-crafted music, very romantic when the occasion dictates and frightening when that is called for."Leeson, Dan. "CHAMBER ORCHESTRA REVIEW: Korngold Rediscovered And A Premiere To Match" . San Francisco Classical Voice. May 21, 2000. Metro Silicon Valley analysed the music in great depth, concluding that "[T]he technique is adroit, fluid and winningly integrated. Ching speaks music so well that he accommodates the text without a stumble.... [T]he music stands remarkably well on its own – rather like a string of pearls.... Ching might well be tempted to craft a concert suite without the transitional material."MacClelland, Scott. "'Psyche' Hotline: The San Jose Chamber Orchestra shows off composer Michael Ching's new Psyche and Eros". Metro Silicon Valley. May 25–31, 2000. The work's additional venues have included the Abu Dhabi Music & Art Festival and the Lincoln Center Summer Institute program in West Memphis.Margaret Wolfson – Performance . MargaretWolfson.com.Margaret Wolfson. LinkedIn. Retrieved October 8, 2017.Ching, Michael. "Psyche and Eros in West Memphis". Opera and Beyond. July 3, 2011.
Operas
1985–1999 Ching is best known for his operas. He provided his own libretti for his first two operas: Levees (1980), a New Orleans vampire story performed at Duke University;"Tilly In Opera". The Dispatch. July 9, 1980. and Cocks Must Crow (1985), based on a Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings short story and performed at Greater Miami Opera.Borroff, Edith and J. Bunker Clark. American Operas: A Checklist. Harmonie Park Press, 1992. p. 56. His early miniature opera Leo: Opera in One Cat is a jazz-based 15-minute one-act opera about a man fighting with his cat, with a libretto by Fernando Fonseca based on Cal Massey's story "Leo Spat". It premiered in June 1985 at Houston Grand Opera's Texas Opera Theater, and subsequent venues included South Street Theater in New York City in October 1985.Griffel, Margaret Ross. Operas in English: A Dictionary. Scarecrow Press, 2012. p. 271. Texas Monthly called it "a pleasant diversion but such an assured one that the Miami-based composer's talent glitters all over it."Taitte, W. L. "Short and Sweet". Texas Monthly. July 1985. p. 152.
His fourth opera, Cue 67, a one-act 35-minute contemporary murder-mystery ghost story set in a theater, was commissioned and premiered at Virginia Opera in 1992, paired in a double bill with Gian Carlo Menotti's The Medium.Nicholson, David. "Premiere Set For Virginia Opera". Daily Press. August 3, 1991.Zietz, Karyl Lynn. Opera companies and houses of the United States: a comprehensive, illustrated reference. McFarland, 1995. p. 280. It contains an eclectic blend of musical styles from opera to rock 'n' roll, pop music, and Broadway-type tunes, and the libretto is by Sandra Bernhard.Nicholson, David. "A 'Cue' From Director". Daily Press. January 19, 1992.Griffel, Margaret Ross. Operas in English: A Dictionary. Scarecrow Press, 2012. p. 108.
Beginning in 1993, Ching wrote two related one-act operas with songwriter Hugh Moffatt. The first, King of the Clouds (1993), deals with alcoholism and broken families,King of the Clouds. Opera America. Retrieved October 8, 2017. and the second, Out of the Rain (1998), explores contemporary topics such as social pressure, teen suicide, and AIDS.Out of the Rain. SheetMusicPlus.com. Accessed September 3, 2014.Out of the Rain. Hal Leonard Corporation. Accessed March 6, 2016.Peter Burwasser, Peter. "Fall Guide: Best Bets" . Philadelphia City Paper. September 17–24, 1998. King of the Clouds was commissioned and premiered by Dayton Opera,Griffel, Margaret Ross. Operas in English: A Dictionary. Scarecrow Press, 2012. p. 259. and Out of the Rain was commissioned jointly by Opera Delaware, the Kansas City Lyric Opera, and Opera Memphis, and premiered by Opera Delaware.Griffel, Margaret Ross. Operas in English: A Dictionary. Scarecrow Press, 2012. p. 362. Both operas, separately and together, have received numerous productions, including high-school productions."Middletown: Buttonwood Tree to host concert by Hugh Moffatt June 20". Middletown Press. May 14, 2014.The Sonneck Society Bulletin, Volumes 19-20. The Sonneck Society, 1993. p. 21.