User:ScottBB321/Sandbox2

Michal Dawson Connor
Michal Dawson Connor
Background information
Also known as	Michal Connor, Dawson Connor
Born	(1970-01-01) January 1, 1970 Jamestown, New York, U.S.A.
Genres	Choral, Chamber, and Solo Vocalist

Bio

Michal Dawson Connor is an accomplished performer and composer of choral, chamber, and solo vocal works, with an emphasis on slave songs written prior to the Civil War. Born in Jamestown, New York and is an alumnus of Carnegie-Mellon University and L’Ecole Hindemith in Vevey, Switzerland, where he studied voice with Blake Stern and Helen Boatwright. Championing American composers has always been a high priority for him, and Mr. Connor has concertized extensively throughout North America and Europe, featuring the rich vocal repertoire of Charles Ives, Samuel Barber, Aaron Copland, and many others.

Mr. Connor is an award winning published author of Behind the Mule: Race and Class in African-American Politics and The Slave Letters.

Singing Career

Broadway

Mr. Connor’s Broadway credits include featured performances in the Tony-Award winning productions of Ragtime and Show Boat as well as starring roles in productions of The Most Happy Fella, BIG RIVER, and Porgy and Bess.

Performances

In addition to soloing on multiple occasions for President Ronald Reagan, he’s immensely proud of performing for Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Reverend Billy Graham, Elizabeth Dole, and Admiral Michael Mullen. And, more recently, Brigadier General Charles McGee of the Tuskegee Airmen and Billy Jean King. Michal's latest concert tour was in Japan and Seoul, Korea, where he was a featured soloist with the historic Roger Wagner Chorale, under the direction of Jeannine Wagner.

Television Appearances

On network television, he was a guest star on Friends and The Jamie Foxx Show, as well as several appearances on the Emmy-Award winning show: Extreme Makeover: Home Edition and The Surprise Gardener”.

Authorship

The Slave Letters

From 1994 to 2006, composer, Michal Dawson Connor undertook an ambitious research project curating letters written by slaves and former slaves from the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture. In 2007, Connor's collection was published by Janssen under the title, "The Slave Letters."​

In 2017, Connor created an immersive theatrical experience drawing from the letters in his book as well as a lifetime of his own arrangements of Negro spirituals. "The Slave Letters" is an hour-long journey spanning the depths of human despair, the transcendence of hope, and the unquenchable thirst for freedom. Some of that content can be seen in an interview and performance in the video Wagner Ensemble's Meet the Artist with Michal Dawson Connor