Michael Meraw

Michael Meraw
Baritone

Teaching Philosophy
I believe that the goal of teaching is to help the student find freedom and ease in singing so that they can give full reign to their artistic and emotional imagination so as to bring to life the great works of art left to us by the composers we are entrusted with interpreting.  I work to achieve this through unique and targeted vocalizes which I develop for each student based upon their particular needs.  This is a collaborative process which eschews forcing or pushing a voice to be anything but it’s unique sound. A student singing from this place of authenticity always sings with more freedom and more expression.

Baritone Michael Meraw has performed with companies across North America (including: Pacific Opera Victoria, the Victoria Symphony Orchestra, the Banff Centre, Edmonton Opera, the Richard Eaton Singers, Symphony Regina, the National Arts Centre, the Thirteen Strings, Opéra Atelier, Opera in Concert, Montreal Opera, Seattle Opera, Virginia Opera, and the Boston Symphony Orchestra), in repertoire ranging from Monteverdi and Handel, to Webern and Szymanowski. Not only has Meraw garnered critical acclaim in the standard repertoire, winning praise for his Figaro in Rossini’s Barber of Seville and Orff’s Carmina Burana, but he has also brought lesser-known works to new audiences through his incisive portrayals of such roles as King Roger by Szymanowski (“Meraw did well as Roger, with nervy urgency and gripping delivery of his increasingly anguished lines…” — Geoff Chapman, The Toronto Star) and Sir John A. MacDonald in Somers’s Louis Riel (“Dealing with a vocal part that veers from sprechgesang to dramatic declamation, baritone Michael Meraw showed great vocal cut and thrust, in addition to contributing a striking stage presence.” — Richard Turp, Opera Canada). Mr. Meraw has performed many of the standard baritone parts in oratorio including Mendelssohn’s Elijah, Orff’s Carmina Burana, Handel’s Messiah, Judas Maccabeas, Joshua and Israel in Egypt, and the Requiem’s of Brahms and Faure. A regular recitalist, his repertoire spans the baritone repertoire in English, French, German, Italian and Russian.

As well as his regular voice studio at New England Conservatory and his responsibilities as the Artistic Director of NEC’s Undergraduate Opera Studio, Mr. Meraw has become a regular Master clinician and adjudicator at several festivals in China, and will be joining the faculty of AIMS in Graz this summer. Many of his students have gone onto success, winning positions in young artist programs and artist contracts in the United States, Canada and Europe. Michael’s students can include La Scala, the Chatelet, L’Opera Comique in Paris, Minnesota Opera, St. Louis Opera, Montreal Opera, BBC Proms, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the Montreal Symphony Orchestra among their recent credits.

Former faculty of McGill University and l’Unversite de Montreal, where he taught studio voice as well as French and Italian diction and a graduate seminar entitled Vocal Styles and Conventions.