Dr. Michelle Conda
Director & Accompanist of Circle Singers
Dr. Michelle Conda hails from rural Pennsylvania from a family of five children. Her mother at 96 years old still lives in Pennsylvania on her own. She claims that "I am the only one of my siblings that got into music, the rest of them are smart". She started playing for the church choir at age 12, continuing with a music career that took her to Toledo and then Cincinnati. She is Professor of Piano Emerita at the University of Cincinnati’s College-Conservatory of Music (CCM), where she also served as Division Head of Keyboard Studies and Coordinator of Secondary Piano and Piano Pedagogy. Her degrees include a BM in Piano Performance with a minor in choral music from Mansfield (PA) University (where she milked cows to help pay her way through school), an MM in Piano Performance from Bowling Green State University (OH), and a PhD in Piano Pedagogy/Music Education from the University of Oklahoma (where she met her husband of thirty years, Bob).
Dr. Conda is passionate about adult learning, doing her doctoral research in Andragogy—the theory/study of how people learn as they age. She designed and taught adult piano classes through UC’s Communiversity program. She now has a small studio of adult piano students, including a retired French professor and a former Bengals Offensive Line coach.
Still an active performer, she performs regularly as soloist and collaborator with the Cincinnati Community Orchestra. Her most recent concert performance was the MacDowell Piano Concerto.
Although the focus of her career is from the piano bench, vocal music has been a part of her life since her early days in PA. As a church pianist, she led a contemporary choir in Toledo. She taught students how to play and conduct as part of her university employment. This is a family affair--her son, Nicholas, sings in two vocal groups, and her husband, Bob, is an accompanist for a voice studio at Northern Kentucky University (NKU).
Dr. Conda received the 2023 Frances Clark Center Lifetime Achievement Award for her role in advancing teaching and group teaching methods. She is also an Ohio teaching fellow for the Music Teacher’s National Association.
When asked about her other interests and activities, Dr. Conda volunteered "I love watching the Phillies on TV and going to all baseball games. Go Reds!! I had a nasty accident 10 years ago in which I experienced multiple breaks in my leg. I'm only now getting back to my favorite sports, racquetball and now pickleball. I can whip most opponents in racquetball, but pickleball? Not so much. This is the first time in my life where I am neither a professional teacher nor student. Yet I seem to have no spare time, as I am practicing the piano and looking up music for Circle Singers."
Although Dr. Conda has conducted and performed with many groups, this is her first experience doing both roles simultaneously. She thanks the Circle Singers for “taking a chance” with her, giving her an opportunity to grow. She is very excited about this collaboration and is looking forward to not only conducting but also learning from this experience.
For more information, call: (513) 315-9972, (513) 505-5221 or e-mail us