Michael Kysar - Biography

 
Michael Kysar has been conductor of The Boeing Employees Choir since 1982. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Education, and a Master of Education degree in Voice Performance, both from Central Washington University.

A private voice teacher for more than 20 years, Mr. Kysar developed a popular seminar for performers, 'Psychodynamics of Performance,' which he has presented more than 75 times across the United States and Canada. He taught vocal and instrumental music in the Highline Schools near Seattle, Washington, for ten years, and had his own music publishing company, which was one of the first in the nation to publish jazz choral music.

For ten years, he was general manager and music director of Pacific Lively Arts, producing a high school summer stock program and semi-professional programs with adults. He has conducted such shows as 'Oklahoma,' 'Fiddler on the Roof,' 'Brigadoon,' and 'The Desert Song.' His performance credits include the Seattle Gilbert and Sullivan Society, Seattle Civic Light Opera, and the Seattle Opera Chorus. He, along with Sherry Meinert, a soprano, and Shirley Lindberg, pianist, combined talents periodically for about 14 years, performing concerts as A Gift of Song.

In the summer of 1998, Mr. Kysar studied conducting with Helmuth Rilling and Tom Summerfield in the Conducting Master Class at the Oregon Bach Festival. (See his Postcards and Pictures).

In 1987, Mr. Kysar joined Microsoft Corporation, a Seattle-based computer software company, and retired in 1996. His most recent assignment was as a program manager for MSNBC News, designing software for publishing and authoring daily news on the Internet. He and his wife, Diann, live in Bellevue, near Seattle, Washington, and have two adult children, a son and a daughter.