Jason J. Michael is thrilled and proud to begin his new position with SRCS, having previously prepped the ensemble as a guest conductor for its appearance in Riverside Center’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Jason’s career and educational background have been eclectic and diverse. He received his BA in Music Composition with emphases in choral conducting and arranging from Susquehanna University in 1993 and then went on to subsequent degrees in Theatre at Kutztown University (1996 BA), Villanova University (2005 MA), and Virginia Commonwealth University (2014 MFA). He has worked variously for the last twenty-five years as an actor, director, music director, composer, arranger, adjunct professor, and author. For the last eight years, he has served as Music Director for the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Fredericksburg, where he also conducts the Adult and Youth Choirs and Handbells. Locally, he has also music directed for Christian Youth Theatre of Fredericksburg and was a regular guest music director at the Riverside Center for the Performing Arts between 2011 and 2016. Other music directing highlights include eight national tours for American Family Theatre, a two-year stint as a guest Music Director for the prestigious Fulton Opera House in Lancaster, PA, and a one-year appointment as the Assistant Conductor of the Susquehanna Valley Chorale. His carol arrangements have been featured on 95.9’s Hometown Holiday Spotlight for three consecutive years. He contributed songs to Warp Speed: A Sci-Fi Parody Musical, which ran in NYC in 2014. His spiritual, All Aboard: The Ballad of Harriet Tubman, is published by Theodore Presser Co., and his children’s books, Daddy Doesn’t Purr and Mommy Made a Beastie, as well as True Haiku for You and A Haiku a Day are on Amazon. Jason is married to his wife Nancy, and they have two children, John Adams and Junius.