One of the hardest hit fields during the pandemic is the arts, causing many programs to halt or shut their doors. For one of our professors, the pandemic did not stop them. Catch a glimpse of the advocacy of professor Michael Sheetz throughout the pandemic below.
Arts in Education
As Assistant Music Director of Musica Sacra, New York’s longest continuously performing professional chorus, Professor Michael Sheetz created an educational outreach program for at-need public high schools in New York City, providing masterclasses on singing technique to aspiring soloists, connecting students with professional singers of the highest caliber, and coaching singers for a virtual performance with the Manhattan Borough Arts Festival during Covid-19.
As Music Director of the Employee Choir at the international bank BNP Paribas, Professor Michael Sheetz been fostering an appreciation of the need for arts education in our communities by advocating for philanthropy to the arts and arts education, and through musical rehearsal and performance with their employees.
At the Church of St. Ignatius Loyola prof. Sheetz has created and has been leading weekly “Sing-Ins” to continue congregational singing online through zoom with the mute button on, engaging singers throughout the country and around the world.
This fall Prof. Sheetz will be initiating an online music education program on Sunday evenings through his chamber choir Canticum Sacrum, to work on musicianship skill building exercises designed for avocational choral singers to grow in their craft, learn new repertoire, and engage in the singing and study of choral repertoire while socially distanced in the online environment.
Performances
Before Covid-19 started, Prof. Michael Sheetz held conducting credits at the New York Philharmonic, New York City Ballet, Lincoln Center Festival, Cathedral of St. John the Divine, as well as faculty credits at The Julliard School and Classic Lyric Arts, and performed regularly as a conductor, organist, pianist, and recitalist in a large range of repertoire with Concerts at St. Ignatius and Musica Sacra.
He has performed live radio broadcasts on WQXR and Vermont Public Radio, and on commercially released recordings on the AMR and MSR Classics labels, and assisted conductors Alan Gilbert, Jane Glover, Sir Roger Norrington, Maria Guinand, Andrew Litton, Pablo Heras-Casado, Philippe Entremont, Bernard Labadie and others.
This fall he will be joining the faculty at Vassar College as Director of the Vassar College Women’s Chorus and will be matriculating into the Doctoral Program in Choral Conducting at Manhattan School of Music
“Music exists above us, and it is the task of singers to pull down the glorious notes and capture them as a font of beauty and wisdom for ourselves and for others. It is a lifelong process that is more about the process than the destination, and about overall growth and enrichment to better embrace and understand our common humanity. Music can teach us to empathize with others and allow us to feel our emotions in a complete way. In this difficult moment we can cultivate pockets of beauty and positivity in our society through music, and this can be achieved through ongoing arts education and dedication to musical growth and skill building. Let us recommit ourselves to this great task, which will, at its best, result in a shared bond of hope and joy for the future.” -Professor Michael Sheetz
Visit Michael Sheetz’s website.
Read more about prof. Sheetz’s advocacy.
