Wolfgang Michel - born near Frankfurt am Main - was already very interested in symphonic music and the sound of the orchestra during his Guitar studies, which led him to Basel/Switzerland, the U.S., and to private lessons with Andrés Segovia. Through this interest, he discovered conducting to be his great passion. Vytautas Marijosius, his first conducting teacher, as well as Kurt Klippstatter, both at the Hartt School of Music in Hartford/CT, encouraged him to follow this profession.

Returning to Europe, Wolfgang Michel continued his conducting studies at the Hochschule für Musik in Würzburg and then at the "Mozarteum" in Salzburg. His teachers were Günther Wich, Jorge Rotter und Michael Gielen. He has also visited master classes for conducting with Julius Kalmar, Wolfgang Harrer, Otakar Trhlík, Frantisek Vajnar, Sylvain Cambreling and Jonathan Sternberg.

During his studies he could motivate his fellow students to work with him in different kinds of ensembles. Further, Mr. Michel has assisted Sylvain Cambreling, assisted at the Opera Festival in Bad Hersfeld, worked with chamber orchestras and small ensembles, also for radio recordings with the Bayerische Rundfunk, and coached singers privately. Wolfgang Michel won a prize from the Repertory Workshop of Symphonic Workshops Ltd in 1998 and from the Karlovy Vary Fall workshop in 2001.

Meanwhile, Wolfgang Michel has made his career mainly in Eastern Europe. He conducted the Philharmonic of Hradec Králové in Czech many times as well as the Symphony Orchestra of Karlovy Vary/Czech, the Philharmonic Orchestra in Vracta/Bulgaria, the Sudecka Philharmonic in Walbrzych/Poland and the Bohuslav Martinu Philharmonic in Zlin/Czech. He has also worked at the opera houses of Plovdiv and Burgas in Bulgaria. Mr. Michel has worked with the Symphony Orchestra of Austin in Minnesota/USA and with the National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland in Dublin. In Germany, he worked with the Hof Symphonic Orchestra, the Nuremburg Symphonic Orchestra and the Radio Philharmonic Orchestra of the Norddeutsche Rundfunk.

Recently, Mr. Michel conducted a Richard Strauss program (Don Quixote and Till Eulenspiegel) with the Filharmonia Sudecka in Walbrzych/Poland. Mr. Michel made his Prague debut in May 2002 with Bruckner 6th Symphony and returned there again in November 2003 for a Brahms-Debussy program. Both concerts were with the Hradec Kralové Philharmonic.

At present Wolfgang Michel lives in Frankfurt am Main and is a freelance conductor for opera and symphony. Future engagements include concerts in Poland, Czech and Germany.