| Micheal
O'Neal
Artistic Director/Conductor - Michael O'Neal Singers
 Michael
O'Neal is the Founder and Artistic Director of The Michael
O'Neal Singers, a symphonic chorus and chamber ensemble based
in Roswell, but with a membership drawn from fourteen counties
across metropolitan Atlanta.
He
is nationally and internationally recognized as a leader in choral music, with
an established reputation as a conductor, tenor soloist and educator. A native
of Bowling Green, Kentucky, O'Neal received the Bachelor and Master of Music Education
degrees from Murray State University in Kentucky and the Doctor of Music Education
degree from the University of Georgia. He has guided MOS since its inception in
1989 with his vision for attaining the highest standards of choral excellence.
His enthusiasm for the impact of choral music on the lives of both singers and
listeners is shared with the audience through entertaining and informative commentary
during performances, as well as through the music itself. Dr.
O'Neal has conducted over fifty of the major choral/orchestral masterworks, and
his choirs have performed at such places as Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, Westminster
Abbey in London, and the Haydn Festival in Austria. Dr. O'Neal has appeared as
guest conductor and clinician throughout the eastern United States and was conductor
of World Choir ‘94, which was featured on the national broadcast of CBS Sunday
Morning. In May 2000, Dr. O'Neal made his conducting debut at Carnegie Hall, directing
a choir comprised of 150 singers from The Michael O'Neal Singers and the Roswell
UMC Sanctuary Choir joined by professional soloists and orchestra for a performance
of Schubert's Mass in G. In July 2000, he conducted the Irish premiere of Mary
McAuliffe's Return to Old Ireland at Dublin's National Concert Hall. During the
summer of 2002 O'Neal served as Co-conductor of the British-American Church Music
Festival in Great Britain, which included performances at Canterbury Cathedral,
St. Paul's Cathedral in London, and Edinburgh's St. Giles Cathedral. In 2006 he
was honored as the first recipient of the Distinguished Performing Artist award
presented by the Roswell Cultural Arts Board. He was named the Lexus Leader of
the Arts by Public Broadcasting Atlanta for the month of August 2006. His
solo career has included opera and oratorio performances in Italy and Belgium
and appearances on National Public Radio and the Armed Forces Radio Network. Dr.
O'Neal performed on five occasions as a soloist with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra
under the baton of Maestro Robert Shaw and was a member of the Robert Shaw Festival
Singers in France for two seasons. His work with Shaw evoked the following accolade:
“Michael O'Neal possesses fine musicianship, a good sense of style, familiarity
with good vocal and choral sound, and a personal integrity and devotion to music.
Though personally talented, he always manages to see that the music comes first.”
Dr. O'Neal has combined his life as a professional musician with that of an
educator, and taught for nearly twenty years at North Georgia College and State
University and Mercer University Atlanta. His commitment to education is also
integral to his approach to church music and he has worked at various churches
throughout north Georgia during the past twenty-five years. He has held the position
of Director of Music (now Director of Worship Arts) at the 6,500-member Roswell
United Methodist Church since 1992. Choral
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