Baritone Michael Sokol has had great success in opera and music theatre here in the United States and in Europe, in venues from the Metropolitan Opera, to the Philadelphia Orchestra, to Steppenwolf Theatre in Chicago. Mr. Sokol grew up in Phoenix, Arizona, where as a child he was a member of the Phoenix Boys Choir for many years. He received his university degrees from Arizona State University, the College-Conservatory of Music at the University of Cincinnati and Northwestern University. As a performer in theatre and opera, he has performed roles from Mozart's Count in Le Nozze di Figaro, Puccini's Marcello in La Boheme and Shaw's Henry Higgins in Lerner and Loewe's My Fair Lady. Very active in the creation of new music theatre, he created the role of Frank Lloyd Wright in the world premiere of Darren Hagen and Paul Muldoon's opera Shining Brow and the role of the Magician in the American premiere of Stephen Oliver's Mario and the Magician. An expert in the comic masterpieces of Gilbert and Sullivan and Offenbach, he has appeared in and directed over 17 of their respective works.

As cantorial soloist, Michael has premiered works by many Jewish composers, and has worked with congregations throughout the United States, including Temple Beth Israel, Phoenix and Isaac M Wise, Cincinnati.

As a choral conductor, Mr. Sokol conducted the boys chorus and Honors chorus for 7 years for Contra Costa Childrens Chorus, and has conducted ensembles at University of California Santa Barbara, Western Kentucky University, and the choirs of Temple Beth Israel, Phoenix and Congregation B'nai Tikvah, Walnut Creek. A voice student of Marlena Malas, he also studied with Italo Tajo, Martial Singher, Gwendolyn Koldofsky and John Reed.

Currently, Mr. Sokol teaches voice and opera at California State University, Sacramento. His voice students have gone on to careers on Broadway, in classical music and the world of popular music.