Michael Busch
Professor of Music
Director of Choral Activities
Conductor
CU Center 103 Ph: (949)854 8002 ext:1520
michael.busch@cui.edu
Degrees Earned
San Jose State University, CA, B.M. Music, 1987. San Jose State University, CA, M.A., 1989. University of Colorado, Boulder, D.M.A., 1999.
Professional Experience
Dr. Michael Busch is professor of music at Concordia University, Irvine, where he serves as Director of Choral Activities. His teaching responsibilities include the areas of conducting, music theory, church music, and choral methods. His work with the Concordia Choir and the Concordia Master Chorale is featured in an acclaimed concert series which annually attracts sell-out crowds to the Concordia Center for Worship and Performing Arts. He has led the Concordia Choir on concert ministry tours throughout the United States, as well as through Brazil, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Hungary, and Italy. During their concert tour through Brazil, The Concordia Choir enjoyed singing before an audience of over 10,000 during the centennial celebrations of the Lutheran Church in Brazil. In their most recent international tour through Italy, the choir was featured during services in major cathedrals in Rome, Assisi, and Florence, as well as St. Mark’s Basilica in Venice.
Dr. Busch received the doctor of musical arts degree in the literature and performance of choral music from the University of Colorado, Boulder and his master’s degree in both the fields of choral conducting and organ performance from San Jose State University. Prior to his arrival at Concordia, he taught choral and instrumental music at every grade level and administered large choral and orchestral music ministry programs in California and Colorado. It is his great joy to mentor musicians desiring to serve as music educators and church musicians.
Under his direction, past MasterWorks concerts have included Bach cantatas, F.J. Haydn’s Lord Nelson Mass, Honegger’s King David, Schubert’s Mass in G, Handel’s Messiah, Mozart’s Requiem, Bach’s Magnificat, Vaughan Williams’ Dona nobis pacem, Haydn’s Te Deum, Mozart’s Great Mass in C minor, Mendelssohn’s Elijah, Durufle’s Requiem, Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms, Brahms’ Ein deutsches Requiem, and Bach’s Mass in B Minor. The featured composition for this year’s Concordia MasterWorks Concert is the oratorio St. Paul by Felix Mendelssohn.
In addition to his duties at Concordia, Dr. Busch has served as a guest conductor, festival organist, choral adjudicator and workshop leader at clinics, conventions and festival events throughout the western United States. He has served as Repertoire and Standards Chair for Music in Worship for the western division states of the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA).
