Michael Pratt came to Princeton in 1977, and serves as Conductor of the University Orchestra, Director of the Program in Musical Performance, and Co-director of both the Composers Ensemble and Richardson Chamber Players. He also teaches classes in conducting, twentieth century music performance, and opera. Pratt also co-directs both the Composer's Ensemble and Richardson Chamber Players, and teaches conducting and other performance courses. In addition, Pratt holds the position of Music Director of the Delaware Valley Philharmonic, and has aso appeared as a guest conductor with the Concerto Soloists of Philadelphia, the Boston Symphony Chamber Players, the orchestras of Detroit Rochester, Atlanta, Long Island, and Indianapolis, the Aspen Music Festival, and Opera Delaware. From 1984 to 1995 he was Music Director of the Opera Festival of New Jersey, which he co-founded. From 1985 to 1990 he also served as Associate Conductor of the New Jersey Symphony. He was educated at the Eastman School of Music, in Rochester, NY and at Tanglewood, and his teachers include Gustav Meier, Gunther Schuller and Otto Werner Mueller.