Biography
American Prize-winning conductor Michelle Perrin Blair engages diverse ensembles and audiences across a variety of genres and styles, including symphony orchestra, musical theatre, new music, and educational ensembles.
Performance
As a performer, Blair's two passions are community engagement and new music. She is in her first full season as Conductor and Music Director of the Coppell Community Orchestra, and she owns and operates Lark Music Loft in downtown Carrollton, where music-makers of all ages and levels can come to deepen their love and study of music. A decades-long advocate for new music, Blair recently recorded Durward Contemporary Chamber Ensemble's second album, Prophetic Revolutions (2022), and debuted the Echoes of a Memory commission project for The Sixth Floor Museum, honoring the 60th anniversary of JFK's assassination (Nov 2023). She will appear on the podium of the Texas New Music Festival in July 2024.
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An active teacher and clinician, Blair serves as Adjunct Assistant Professor of Music at the University of Texas at Arlington, teaches and directs the Music Together curriculum at Lark, and guest conducts all over Texas. In 2024, she will appear on the TPSMEA circuit and will return to the American Festival for the Arts as Principal Guest Conductor.
Education
Blair holds a Doctorate of Musical Arts from the University of Houston Moores School of Music, where she studied orchestral conducting with Maestro Franz Anton Krager and served as Assistant Director of the AURA Contemporary Ensemble under Dr. Rob Smith for three years. Blair earned her Master of Music degree in conducting from the University of Texas at Arlington under the tutelage of her lifelong mentor, Dr. Clifton Evans. An active violinist, she holds a Bachelor of Music degree in violin performance from Southwestern University, and Blair studied violin under Andrzej Grabiec, Martha Walvoord, Eri Lee Lam, and Rodica Gonzalez.
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Blair resides in Carrollton, Texas, with her husband and two children.
