MICHELLE ROFRANO
CONDUCTOR
BIOGRAPHY
Michelle Rofrano is an Italian American conductor with a keen interest in the intersection of art, storytelling, and social activism. An avid opera conductor, upcoming engagements include guest conducting La Cenerentola with Toledo Opera, L’amant anonyme (Bologne) with Madison Opera, Turandot with Fargo Moorhead Opera, and a double bill of Les mamelles de Tirésias (Poulenc) and The Seven Deadly Sins (Weill) with the Curtis Institute of Music.
The past several seasons have seen Rofrano lead productions of La Traviata and Cendrillon(Viardot) with City Lyric Opera; Amelia al ballo with The Juilliard School, The Turn of the Screw with the Curtis Institute, The Fall of the House of Usher with Orpheus PDX, Don Quichotte at Camacho's Wedding (Telemann) with Opera Saratoga, Trouble in Tahiti with The Glimmerglass Festival and Westminster Choir College, and a new production of Tchaikovsky’s The Queen of Spades created by Francesca Zambello.
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Rofrano has served as cover conductor for productions of Dream of the Red Chamber (Sheng/Hwang) with San Francisco Opera; the world premiere of Proximity (Adams/ Roumain/ Shaw) with Lyric Opera of Chicago; La bohème and Le nozze di Figaro with Florida Grand Opera; The Cunning Little Vixen, La Traviata, Blue (Tesori/Thompson), and Silent Night (Puts/Campbell) with The Glimmerglass Festival; Eugene Onegin and Salome with Spoleto Festival USA; L'elisir d'amore and The Merry Wives of Windsor with Juilliard Opera; Man of La Mancha with Opera Saratoga; and La bohème with Opera Birmingham.
While Rofrano has a particular passion for Italian opera, she also enjoys exploring contemporary and innovative projects. In 2022 she conducted the meditative opera Song of the Ambassadors (Skye/AlladoMcDowell) at Alice Tully Hall, a groundbreaking opera in development that interweaves music, science, and technology. In 2023, Rofrano was Music Director for recording project No One Is Forgotten: An Immersive Opera, the first opera designed for 3D Spatial Audio adapted from the original play by Winter Miller, cocomposed by Paola Prestini and Sxip Shirey. The recording will premiere on Dallas Opera.TV in fall 2023. Rofrano is also passionate about working with the upcoming generation of classical musicians and joined National Sawdust for the Juilliard Blueprint Bridge Fellowship Concert in December 2022, conducting five world premieres by Juilliard student composers.
A Taki Alsop Conducting Fellowship Mentee, Rofrano enjoys performing orchestral repertoire in addition to opera and has led concerts with the Spoleto Festival USA orchestra, CJMEA youth orchestra, and The Little Orchestra Society. Her recording of Fanny Mendelssohn's Overture in C from the Spoleto Festival's Classical Showcase in 2019 has been featured multiple times on the classical music radio program Performance Today, reaching a national audience.
In response to the US federal immigration ban of 2017, Rofrano organized and led #NoBan, an orchestral protest concert with an aptly named ad-hoc ensemble PROTESTRA to raise donations for refugee aid organizations. In 2020, PROTESTRA formally incorporated as a non-profit with the mission of raising awareness about various social justice issues through the lens of classical music. The past several PROTESTRA seasons have included projects and performances such as a Concert for Mental Health, Concert Against Gun Violence, Breaking the Bias: A Concert for Women’s History Month, Concert for Climate Action, and Concert for Black Lives. During the Covid-19 pandemic, the group created a virtual orchestral rendition of Florence Price's Symphony No. 4 mvt II: Andante Cantabile, the first-ever virtual performance of a Price symphony, which reached over 25,000 viewers online.
In addition to her recent work as the founder and Artistic Director of PROTESTRA, Rofrano is also a cocreator of Girls Who Conduct, an initiative that mentors young women and non-binary musicians in an effort to achieve gender parity on the conducting podium.
Rofrano completed graduate conducting studies at the Peabody Conservatory and counts Marin Alsop, Joseph Colaneri, Gustav Meier, and Markand Thakar among her mentors.
Current as of July 21, 2023
CRITICAL ACCLAIM
"... She captured the ambiguity and sinister mystery of the story..." – Oregon ArtsWatch
The Fall of the House of Usher – "Conductor Rofrano, with a 12-person orchestra (including synthesizer), never overplayed the score. She captured the ambiguity and sinister mystery of the story with the quiet pulsing staccato of the music and moments of pause. Poe writes about a crack in “the house,” but in this production, the crack is Roderick’s split life, and the music makes it all the more haunting."
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"... Rofrano on the podium leading an energetic and light-hearted reading..." – Voce di Meche
Cendrillon – “Career advancement is not easy for female conductors and we were thrilled to see the young rapidly rising Maestro Michelle Rofrano on the podium leading an energetic and light-hearted reading of Pauline Viardot's telling of the Cinderella tale. The chamber orchestra was with her every step of the way. There were the requisite strings augmented by one each of flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, and horn. The plangent sound of the harp wove it all together. The melodic score has the flavor of French music hall, which we see as a good thing. Mo. Rofrano played the score as a light-hearted and enchanting bauble.”
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"... she's a meticulous musician..." – Oberon’s Grove
Cendrillon – “the beauteous Maestro Rofrano. . . she's a meticulous musician who knows the score inside out.”
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"... Rofrano elicited thrilling, evocative results..." – Opera Today
The Queen of Spades – “Maestra Rofrano elicited thrilling, evocative results from her exquisite chamber players and she ably supported her singers in relating the drama.”
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"... expertly conducted..." –ArezzoOra.it
Così fan tutte – “Great success for Oberlin's Cosi fan tutte in Piazza Grande ... expertly conducted by Michelle Rofrano"
REPRESENTATIVES
General