Dr. Michael Driscoll is an award-winning choral and instrumental conductor, scholar, editor/arranger, and choral and music literacy pedagogue. He is Director of Choirs at Brookline High School, a position he has held since September 2003. At Brookline High School Driscoll directs three choirs, advises four student-directed vocal ensembles, and teaches Advanced Placement Music Theory and Piano Class.
Driscoll has directed adult community choruses for over twenty years. In the spring of 2022 he was appointed Artistic Director of Commonwealth Chorale and began working with the group in the fall of 2022. Prior to working with Commonwealth Chorale, Driscoll directed Andover Choral Society for nine years. His accomplishments with the group included collaborations with a number of community organizations and the performance of works by lesser-known composers of the present day and of the past. Under his direction Andover Choral Society was awarded The American Prize’s 2020 Ernst Bacon Memorial Award for the premiere performance of Abraham Lincoln Walks at Midnight by Florence Price (1887-1953). Driscoll directed Boston Saengerfest Men’s Chorus for twelve years prior to his tenure with Andover Choral Society.
For six years Driscoll was Lead Musicianship Teacher for the Handel & Haydn Society’s Youth Choruses program for children and high school students. At H&H he completely revamped and re-designed the musicianship curriculum and trained and supervised the musicianship faculty.
His doctoral dissertation, “Jan Dismas Zelenka’s ‘Dixit Dominus’ Settings Within the Context of the Dresden Hofkapelle,” was awarded the American Choral Directors Association’s 2016 Julius Herford Dissertation Prize. The review committee for the Herford prize described his dissertation as “a model of outstanding research and presentation,” demonstrating “well-documented and to-be-applauded reasoning.” Using his own critical editions, Driscoll has produced the first recordings of Zelenka’s Dixit Dominus (ZWV 67) and Zelenka’s arrangement of Tomaso Ingegnieri’s Dixit Dominus.
Driscoll is a past President of the Massachusetts chapter of the American Choral Directors Association (MassACDA). He has served as Performing Choirs Chair for three of the last four ACDA Eastern Region conferences. He is a passionate advocate for teaching music literacy skills in the choral classroom and has given numerous presentations on the subject at professional conferences including at MassACDA Summer Conferences, at the ACDA Eastern Region conference, at the Massachusetts Music Educators Association’s All-State Conferences and at the National Association for Music Education’s All-Eastern conference. As a service to other music educators, he provides a number of free music literacy resources on his personal website.
Driscoll earned an MM in Choral Conducting from the New England Conservatory and a DMA in Choral Conducting from Boston University. Past conducting teachers include Simon Carrington, Ann Howard Jones, and David Hoose. Driscoll began conducting as an undergraduate at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI), directing a male a cappella group for three years. At WPI he also served as Assistant Director of the WPI Men’s Glee Club and Director of the WPI Concert Choir. Driscoll graduated from WPI in 1997 with a BS in Electrical Engineering and a minor in Music. He earned an MS in Electrical Engineering at WPI and worked as a software development engineer for two years before moving to a career in music.
