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Jeremiah Kraniak

Michigan conductor, Jeremiah Kraniak, was selected as Saginaw Choral Society’s permanent Artistic Director/Conductor in 2016. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in music education from Saginaw Valley State University and a Master of Music in choral conducting from Central Michigan University. Prior to focusing on choral music, Mr. Kraniak spent six years studying solo and orchestral flute. As a tenor, he studied voice under Dr. Julie Meyer. He has been a featured tenor soloist with the Saginaw Choral Society under the batons of Mr. Robert Sabourin and Dr. Glen Thomas Rideout. As a conductor, Mr. Kraniak has worked with GRAMMY® award-winning singer, Sylvia McNair, Kevin Cole. and Katie Travis (Christine Daae, National Tour of Phantom of the Opera).

In the fall of 2015, Jeremiah accepted a graduate assistantship at Central Michigan University to pursue his MM degree under the mentorship of Dr. Nina Nash-Robertson. As a conductor, he has prepared choirs for Dr. Kevin Simons, Dr. Glen Thomas Rideout, and Mr. Fouad Fakhouri. In June 2017 he prepared a group of singers to perform Vaughan Williams' Dona Nobis Pacem at Carnegie Hall. Jeremiah served as the assistant choral conductor at the annual Baroque on Beaver music festival on Beaver Island. His choirs have shared the stage in collaborative performances with the Saginaw Valley State University and Central Michigan University School of Music choirs. He has participated in conducting symposiums lead by Dr. Jerry Blackstone and Dr. Julie Skadsem of the University of Michigan, Dr. Daniel Bara of the Hugh Hodgson School of Music at the University of Georgia and noted conductor/composer Z. Randall Stroope. In July of 2016, Jeremiah was invited to attend the Choral Institute at Oxford lead by Dr. James Jordan, at Oxford University. There, he conducted the GRAMMY® nominated Williamson Voices in St. John the Evangelist Church on the campus of St. Stephen’s House.

Jeremiah is an active member of the National Association of Teachers of Singing and the American Choral Directors Association.

Catherine McMichael

Catherine McMichael, pianist, composer, arranger, teacher, and clinician has had a friendly association with the Saginaw Choral Society since 1981. Over the years, she has composed and arranged many works for SCS, including a new arrangement of Lift Ev'ry Voice and Sing premiered this evening. Catherine's Bachelor of Music in piano performance and Master of Music in chamber music are from the University of Michigan. In addition to the SCS, Catherine is the pianist/arranger/composer for the Bijou Orchestra in Bay City and the River Ragtime Revue in Ann Arbor. She also plays with the Saginaw Bay Symphony Orchestra and directs Bells on High, the handbell choir at First United Methodist Church in Saginaw, and occasionally music directs at Bay City Players.