Michael Kysar has been conductor of The Boeing Employees Choir since 1982, conducting over 500 performances around the world, including some of the finest concert halls such as cathédrale Sainte-Pierre in Nantes, France; the York Guild Hall in England; and the Sydney Opera House in Australia. Countries where The Boeing Choir has presented concerts: England, Wales, France, Germany, Czech Republic, Poland, Austria, Switzerland, New Zealand, Australia, Canada, and of course, the U.S.
For fifteen years, he performed over 100 duet recitals with partner Sherry Meinert as A Gift of Song, and taught private voice lessons for twenty years. His students have performed on Broadway, at the Munich State Opera, and one student even gave voice lessons to Bill Gates.
Kysar spent nine years teaching junior and senior high school music in the Highline district near Seattle. In a junior high of 600 students, 300 of them were in his music classes, which included concert band, stage band, orchestra, and three choral groups. The Eighth Grade Chorus had 95 singers, and almost half of them were boys.
In the 1970s, he was a pioneer in publishing and promoting vocal jazz music, and in the 1990s, was a pioneer in publishing music on the Internet.
He is the founder of the Sing for Life! festivals where young people discover how music can enrich their lives over a lifetime, and how "old people" can be wonderful performers and thoroughly enjoy life and music.
He has presented his seminar on mental discipline for performers more than 75 times around the U.S. and Canada for universities, professional organizations, teachers, and high schools.
During nine years as a full time employee at Microsoft, he served as instructional designer, technical writer, team lead, and program manager, including being the first technical program manager for the birth of MSNBC on the Internet, and attempted to retire in 1996. Since 2003, he has frequently returned to Microsoft as a consultant, program manager, technical writer, or software designer and developer.
He holds Bachelor of Arts in Music Education and Master of Education in Voice degrees from Central Washington University.
He studied voice with Lynn Dupin and Phyllis Peterson, studied conducting with Helmuth Rilling and Thomas Somerville, and studied composition with Robert Panerio and Paul Creston.
As a baritone soloist, he has performed with the Seattle Gilbert and Sullivan Society, the Seattle Opera Chorus, Pacific Lively Arts, A Gift of Song, and many churches in the Puget Sound region.
He is also president and owner of Publishing Foundations Corp.
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