Dr. C. Michael Porter is Professor of Music and Director of Choral Activities at Boise State University, where he conducts the Boise State Meistersingers, University Singers, and Vox Angelis. Prior to this appointment, Michael held conducting positions at Brevard College and Bloomsburg University. He is also the Artistic Director of Critical Mass Vocal Artists—Idaho’s semi-professional chamber choir—and has conducted choirs in Uruguay, South Korea, Belgium, the Netherlands, and France. Past choral performances under Michael’s direction include J. S. Bach’s B minor Mass, Weihnachtsoratorium and Magnificat; Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms and Mass; Handel’s Messiah and Zadok the Priest; Haydn’s Missa in tempore belli, Mendelssohn's Die erste Waldpurgisnacht, Mozart’s Requiem and Vesperae solennes de confessore; Britten’s Saint Nicolas and Rejoice in the Lamb; Carissimi’s Jephte; Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater, and Craig Hella Johnson’s Considering Matthew Shepard.

In addition to choral conducting, Michael also has extensive experience conducting operatic and musical theater works. He made his Opera Idaho debut with Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi and Bernstein’s Trouble in Tahiti in 2014, and most recently was the Musical Director of Opera Idaho’s and Boise Contemporary Theater’s 2021 and 2022 co-production of All Is Calm: The Christmas Truce of 1914. As the Associate Conductor and Assistant Music Director of the Asheville Lyric Opera Company, Michael has conducted such opera masterworks as Così fan tutte, L’elisir d’amore, Rigoletto, and The Merry Widow. Other stage works include Sondheim’s Into the Woods and A Little Night Music, Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo, and Krása’s Brundibár. In 2008, Michael was the guest associate conductor and chorus master for the Utah Opera Company at the Deer Valley Music Festival.  

Michael received his DMA in Choral Conducting and Pedagogy from The University of Iowa, under the tutelage of Dr. Timothy Stalter, and his Bachelors and Masters Degree from Truman State University, where he studied with Dr. R. Paul Crabb. Michael received further training at the 2009 Oregon Bach Festival Conducting Master Class with Helmut Rilling.