Michael Connolly is an active music performer, conductor, composer, and teacher. Since 1988 he has taught at the University of Portland, Portland, Oregon, where he conducts the University of Portland Choral Union and sings frequent voice recitals. Catholic pastoral music has been the primary focus of Michael's career. He has directed musical groups and programs in small and large parishes and in campus ministry. His guidebook, The Parish Cantor (GIA), has been widely used, and GIA has published over thirty of his compositions, including two collections, Christ the Teacher and We Live a Mystery.

Michael has taught liturgical music workshops across the country since 1978. His areas of specialty are cantors, choirs, choral conducting, and the singing voice. A native of Shelton, Washington, Michael earned Bachelor's degrees in voice and music education from the University of Washington, Seattle, and a Master of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts in Choral Music (1986) from the University of Southern California, Los Angeles. He studied singing in Vienna, Austria, as a Rotary International Scholar in 1985-86. While choral conducting and singing are his performance specialties, he also plays piano, organ, and guitar, and he is adept in both classical and contemporary styles.