Michael Alan Anderson received his Ph.D. in the History and Theory of Music at the University of Chicago with a dissertation on symbolism in late medieval music for John the Baptist and St. Anne. He is currently writing a book on politics and cultural meaning in late medieval and Renaissance music for St. Anne. Awards include the Alvin H. Johnson American Musicological Society 50 Dissertation-Year Fellowship, the Whiting Foundation Fellowship (University of Chicago), the Grace Frank Grant (Medieval Academy of America), and several travel and research grants. His essay on the hymn cycle of the manuscript Bologna Q 15 was published in Studi musicali in 2006, and he edited an essay that appeared in the proceedings of a conference on Obadiah the Proselyte in 2004.
Anderson has presented papers at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (Belgium), the Medieval and Renaissance Music Conference (Vienna and Utrecht), the national and local chapter meetings of the American Musicological Society, the International Congress on Medieval Studies (Kalamazoo), and the Forum on Music and Christian Scholarship.
Still an active performer, Michael directs the Schola Antiqua of Chicago, a professional vocal ensemble dedicated to the study and performance of medieval plainchant and early polyphonic music, which he co-founded with Calvin M. Bower in 2000. He has sung baritone with the Chicago Symphony Chorus for three concert seasons, under the batons of Barenboim, Boulez, Penderecki, Mehta, Eschenbach, Rostropovich, and others in venues from Orchestra Hall and the Ravinia Festival in Chicago to Carnegie Hall and the Berlin Philharmonic. He has received invitations to sing with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, as well as with the ensemble Seraphic Fire (Miami). As a conductor, Anderson has served as the Assistant Director of the Rockefeller Memorial Chapel Choir (2001-2005) and as a guest conductor of the Notre Dame Glee Club.
