Michael Higgins

Michael regularly performs with the Cantate Choir.

Michael Higgins studied at the Birmingham Conservatoire, later specialising in piano accompaniment and chamber music at the Royal Academy of Music, London, with Julius Drake and Iain Ledingham.  He has performed in master classes given by Clifford Benson, Thomas Hampson, Rudolf Jansen, Bryce Morrison and Udo Reinemann.  Michael also studied organ with Andrew Fletcher and was Organ Scholar at the Metropolitan Cathedral of Saint Chad, Birmingham.

Abroad, Michael has performed with singers and instrumentalists in Germany, Hungary, Italy, Australia and New Zealand.  He performs regularly throughout the United Kingdom and has worked with the National Youth Choirs and National Children’s Choir of Great Britain, Midland Festival Chorus, Royal Academy Opera and the Royal Ballet School. In the past year Michael has made a successful return visit to New Zealand to lead workshops for choral accompanists by invitation of the New Zealand Choral Federation.

As a composer, he has answered a number of commissions, including songs for a set of educational books published in Singapore, and many of his choral and organ works are published worldwide by Kevin Mayhew Publishers.

Michael was awarded the Joseph Weingarten Memorial Trust Scholarship for 2005-06 and has recently completed his studies with Kálmán Dráfi at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music, Budapest.