Classical guitarist and conductor Michael Poll has performed across North America, South America, and Europe, including Barbican Hall, Wigmore Hall, and the National Theatre of Panama. His debut guitar album, 7-String Bach, was called ‘masterful’ by Gramophonemagazine, and Wholenote praised his ‘Warm, rich, and full tone’. Since its release in April 2018, 7-String Bach has been streamed over 400,000 times on Spotify, has been played on Classic FM in London, WRTI in the United States, and was BBC Guernsey’s Feature of the Month for July.
Poll’s 2018-2019 season includes recitals at St James Piccadilly and The Warehouse in London, engagements in Germany and Italy, and a tour of UK Cathedrals, as well as Cosi Fan Tutte in London for Bloomsbury Opera.
From 2014-2018 Poll served as Music Director of the Goodensemble Orchestra in London, where he conducted 24 concerts including a Gala Performance in honour of Queen Elizabeth II, a complete St John Passion, and Bloomsbury Opera’s 2018 production of Le Nozze di Figaro.
Poll’s compositions Three Preludes and Vltava/Hatikva Variations for solo guitar were premiered in 2012 as a part of the Dresden String Spring festival.
A 2010 Fulbright and a 2012 Marshall Scholar, Michael Poll holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in music summa cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania and was a visiting student at the Curtis Institute of Music. He holds a Diploma from the Paderewski Academy of Music in Poland, and the MPerf degree from the Guildhall School, where he was a Junior Fellow from 2015-2017. Poll’s teachers have included Robert Brightmore, David Conte, Frederic Hand, Lukasz Kuropaczewski, Mark Shapiro, Emiliano Pardo-Tristán, Benjamin Verdery and Piotr Zaleski. Poll has been a member of the faculty of the Bryn Mawr Conservatory of Music and the Polish Guitar Academy and a fellow of the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival. He has performed live on the radio in Poland, Panama, and the US, and has had music broadcast by the BBC World Service. He has received additional support from the Stapley Trust, the Dodgson Trust, and Help Musicians UK.
Free recital (retiring collection)