Michael Lewanski - Conductor

Conductor, educator, and writer Michael Lewanski is a champion of new and old music. His work seeks to facilitate engaged connections between audiences, musicians, and the music that is part of their culture, society, and history. Based in Chicago, he is conductor of Ensemble Dal Niente and Associate Professor of instrumental ensembles at the DePaul University School of Music. His work fosters a critical perspective towards the classical music industry’s historical injustices with the goal of collective, systemic change. He is Curatorial Director of Ear Taxi Festival 2021, a festival of 21st century Chicago music. His wide-ranging guest-conducting has included work with Lyric Opera of Chicago, the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s MusicNOW Series, the Toledo Symphony Orchestra, the Composers Conference, the National Symphony Orchestra of Turkmenistan, Ensamble CEPROMUSIC (Centro de Experimentación y Producción de Música Contemporánea, Mexico City), and Mocrep, among many others. He was resident conductor of the SoundSCAPE Festival in Italy in 2017 and 2019. Michael has an extensive discography as both conductor and producer with Ensemble Dal Niente, Spektral Quartet, Third Coast Percussion, DePaul’s Ensemble 20+, and others.

A native of Savannah, Georgia, he studied piano and violin in his youth; he made his conducting debut at age 13, leading his own composition. At 16, he was the youngest-ever student in the legendary Ilya Musin’s class at the St. Petersburg Conservatory. He attended Yale University; he subsequently studied with Cliff Colnot and Lucas Vis.