Schnack Michael

Michael Schnack was born in Iowa, USA, and began his musical training studying piano with Amy Mulford. He graduated summa cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts in Music from Yale University. He pursued further studies in Moscow through a semester abroad at the Gnessin Institute and completed a professional internship with the Moscow Chamber Choir under Maestro Vladimir Minin. He later earned a Master of Arts and a Doctor of Musical Arts (D.M.A.) in Choral Conducting and Pedagogy from the University of Iowa. He also holds an international teaching license in the Jaques-Dalcroze method of music education.

Since 1990, Schnack has been living and working in Vienna, Austria, as a freelance music director, conductor, composer, arranger, pianist, singer, and stage director. He has led numerous productions in opera, operetta, musical theatre, and choral repertoire. His credits include major venues such as the Volksoper Wien (Kiss Me, Kate; Dance, Dance, Dance), Volkstheater (Broadway-Melodie 1492; Wonderful Tennessee), Kammeroper (The Cole Porter Story; Avenue X; Company; A Good Man; The Last Five Years), Ronacher (She Loves Me), Seefestspiele Mörbisch, Sommerfestspiele Amstetten (Sweet Charity; Kiss Me, Kate), Oper Air Festival Stockerau (The King and I; A Chorus Line; Victor/Victoria; La Cage aux Folles; They’re Playing Our Song), Luisenburg Festspiele (Grease), Stadttheater St. Gallen (The Rocky Horror Show), and Semafortheater Prague (The Fantasticks). He has also staged his own productions of Sullivan’s The Gondoliers, Hajibeyov’s Arşın mal alan, and Jaques-Dalcroze’s Les Jumeaux de Bergame.

As a composer, Schnack has written four original musicals: Time Out! (2001–2002, Stockerau), FINIX (2003–2004 in Vienna, Trento, and Ljubljana), 1070 Wien (2006, Klub Ost), and C’est la vie! (2007, Stockerau). His works in choral and vocal composition have earned him awards from the Ennio Morricone International Competition (2015), AICE Festival “Youth and Music” (2013), the Austrian Composers’ Association (2006), and the Virginia Harp Center Competition (2004).

From 1994 to 2010, he served as Artistic Director of the Performing Arts Studios Vienna, where he directed productions such as High School Musical, revues (Magic to Do; Body Electric; Cross the Line; The Blue Piano), operas (Menotti’s The Telephone), and choral works (Ray’s Gospel Mass; Menotti’s The Unicorn, the Gorgon and the Manticore). Between 2012 and 2016, he was Director of Choral Studies and Vocal Area Coordinator at Muhlenberg College in Pennsylvania, where he led productions of Street Scene, Hansel and Gretel, Hello, Dolly!, A Chorus Line, Chicago, and Gypsy.

From 2016 to 2021, he served as Professor and Head of Musical Theatre at the Music and Arts Private University of Vienna (MUK), where he conducted operettas such as Offenbach’s Bagatelle and Daphnis and Chloe, Honegger’s The Adventures of King Pausole, Sullivan’s The Mikado; musicals such as Be More Chill, Hello, Again, Grimm!; and choral works including Jean Berger’s Jephthah and His Daughter, The Pied Piper, and Birds of a Feather.

Michael Schnack is currently affiliated with the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna (mdw) and continues to give workshops, lectures, and masterclasses internationally in countries such as Armenia, China, Taiwan, Germany, Georgia, Italy, Japan, Poland, Switzerland, the Czech Republic, the United Kingdom, the United States, and beyond.
In 2022, he served as a jury member for the international music competition “Sounds of the Land of Fire” held in Vienna.