This concert is Michelle Merrill's debut with the North Carolina Symphony.

Michelle Merrill served four years as the Assistant and then Associate Conductor of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, where she also carried the title of Phillip and Lauren Fisher Community Ambassador. In addition to her growing guest conducting schedule, she currently serves as the Music Director of The Coastal Symphony of Georgia.

Recent and upcoming engagements include the National Symphony Orchestra, San Francisco Opera, National Arts Centre Orchestra (Ottawa), Minnesota Orchestra, Dallas Symphony Orchestra, River Oaks Chamber Orchestra, Cincinnati Pops Orchestra, Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, Iceland Symphony Orchestra, Toledo Symphony Orchestra, Sarasota Orchestra, West Virginia Symphony Orchestra, Symphoria (Syracuse), Princeton Symphony Orchestra, and Round Top Music Festival Institute.

In past seasons, Merrill has conducted concerts with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Jacksonville Symphony, Oklahoma City Philharmonic, Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra, Orlando Philharmonic, Sacramento Philharmonic & Opera, Boise Philharmonic, New Music Detroit, and the Northeastern Pennsylvania Philharmonic, where she served as Assistant Conductor from 2012-2015.

Merrill received a 2016 Solti Foundation U.S. Career Assistance Award as well as the 2013 Ansbacher Conducting Fellowship, awarded by members of the Vienna Philharmonic and the American Austrian Foundation, which enabled her to be in residence at the Salzburg Festival. Born in Dallas, she studied conducting with Dr. Paul C. Phillips at Southern Methodist University’s Meadows School of the Arts, where she holds a master’s degree in conducting and a bachelor’s degree in performance.