Biography

Michael Fili is an award winning American composer based in Washington, DC. Drawing from his years of experience as a professional choral musician, Michael’s compositions focus on music for the voice. His music has been performed throughout the United States and Europe and has been recognized by organizations including Chanticleer, Chorosynthesis, the International Federation for Choral Music, and Westminster Choir College. In 2024 Michael was named Composer in Residence at St Paul’s K Street in Washington, DC, one of the United States’ leading Episcopal church music programs.

Michael has performed in choruses with many of the world’s prominent ensembles, including the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Berlin State Opera Orchestra, National Symphony Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Orchestra of St. Luke’s, Philadelphia Orchestra, Phillip Glass Ensemble, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, and the San Francisco Symphony under conductors including Teddy Abrams, John Adams, Marin Alsop, Pierre Boulez, James Conlon, Andrew Davis, Christoph Eschenbach, Ton Koopman, Kurt Masur, Roger Norrington, Gianandrea Noseda, Jeannette Sorrell, Michael Tilson Thomas, Helmuth Rilling, and Donald Runnicles. Michael is currently a staff singer with The Washington Chorus, the Choir of St Paul’s K Street, and the Washington National Cathedral.

From 2016 through 2023, Michael was co-founder and Artistic Director of StageFree Music, a chamber music collective that supported the work of over three-dozen composers and performers with ties to the DC region. Michael also served as the 2018-2019 Artistic Director of TEMPO, the University of Maryland’s new music ensemble. Under Michael’s direction, the seven-concert season included twelve premieres, performances of work by major living composers, a concert of music by Maryland composers, and a portrait concert premiering two of Michael Post’s visual/aural Color Music Pieces.

Before joining Howard's faculty, Michael was a member of the faculty of Shenandoah Conservatory. He also occasionally teaches upper-level and graduate music theory courses at the University of Maryland and the Catholic University of America. Michael earned his DMA from the University of Maryland under the supervision of Mark Wilson. He earned his MM from Carnegie Mellon University, studying composition with Leonardo Balada and conducting with Robert Page, and his BM is from Westminster Choir College, where his teachers included Joel Phillips, Christian Carey, Stefan Young, Sun Min Lee, James Jordan, and Joe Miller.