Michael Alan Anderson

Michael Alan Anderson received his Ph.D. in the History and Theory of Music at the University of Chicago in 2008 and is completing a book on politics and cultural meaning in late medieval and Renaissance music for St. Anne. He specializes in a wide range of issues related to western liturgical music from the central Middle Ages through the sixteenth century, with an emphasis on the saints and lay devotion. Awards include the National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Stipend, the Alvin H. Johnson American Musicological Society 50 Dissertation-Year Fellowship, the Grace Frank Grant (Medieval Academy of America), the Whiting Foundation Fellowship (University of Chicago), and several travel and research grants. Anderson has published articles in Early Music History, Early Music, Plainsong and Medieval Music, and Studi musicali. Since 2010, he has served as a member of the Editorial Board of the American Choral Review, the semiannual journal of the organization Chorus America. He is also on the Editorial Board for two textbooks published by W.W. Norton (The History of Western Music, 9th edition [ed. Burkholder] and Concise History of Western Music, 5th edition [ed. Hanning]).

Anderson has presented papers at the congress of the International Musicological Society (Rome), the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (Belgium), the Medieval and Renaissance Music Conference (Vienna, Utrecht, and London), the national and local chapter meetings of the American Musicological Society, the Renaissance Society of America, the International Congress on Medieval Studies (Kalamazoo), the Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, and the conference of the International Association for Robin Hood Studies.

Still an active performer, Anderson began serving as Artistic Director of Schola Antiqua of Chicago in 2008 following the retirement of Calvin M. Bower, with whom he co-founded the organization in 2000. A professional vocal ensemble dedicated to the study and performance of music before 1600, Schola Antiqua currently serves as Artists in Residence at the Lumen Christi Institute and has been the recipient of grants from the Elizabeth F. Cheney Foundation, the Sage Foundation, and the Illinois Arts Council. The ensemble’s recordings have aired on the nationally syndicated broadcasts of “With Heart and Voice,” “Millennium of Music” and “Harmonia”; they have also received reviews in Early Music America, the Journal of Plainsong and Medieval Music, and Notes (Journal of the Music Library Association).

As a choral conductor, Anderson has served as the Assistant Director of the Rockefeller Memorial Chapel Choir (2001-5) and as a guest conductor of the Notre Dame Glee Club. Meantime as a singer, Anderson has performed with the Chicago Symphony Chorus, under the batons of Barenboim, Boulez, Penderecki, Mehta, Eschenbach, Rostropovich, and others in venues from Orchestra Hall and the Ravinia Festival in Chicago to Carnegie Hall and the Berlin Philharmonie. He has also received invitations to sing with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, as well as smaller ensembles such as Schola Cantorum of Christ Church (Rochester), Voices (Rochester), and Seraphic Fire (Miami).