Michael McElroy
Biography
As a performer, Michael McElroy’s credits include: Broadway: Sunday in the Park with George (2017 revival starring Jake Gyllenhaal), Next to Normal, RENT, The Wild Party, Big River (Tony and Drama Desk Award Nominations), The Who’s Tommy, Miss Saigon, Patti LuPone on Broadway, The High Rollers Social and Pleasure Club. New York Philharmonic: Candide. National Tours: Next to Normal, RENT, Big River (L.A. Ovation Award Nomination), Sarafina!. Off- Broadway: Some Men (Second Stage), Blue (Roundabout), Violet (Original Cast, Playwrights Horizons, Drama Desk Award Nomination), Hair (Encores), Thunder Knocking on the Door (Minetta Lane), Richard III (NYSF). Regional: Broadway: Three Generations (Kennedy Center), Big River (Fords Theatre, Helen Hayes Award Nomination), Fences (Riverside Theatre), Angels in America: Parts I & II (Alley Theatre), Blue (Pasadena Playhouse, L.A. Ovation Award Nomination), Dreamgirls (Pittsburgh Playhouse). Film: RENT: Filmed Live on Broadway, Romance and Cigarettes, Stonewall. Television: The Wiz Live! (Background Vocals), RENT: Live (Background Vocals), After Forever, Cantebury’s Law, Love Monkey, All My Children, Spin City, Michael Jackson Concert, 2002 Grammy Awards. Cast Albums: Blue, The Who’s Tommy, The Wild Party, Violet, Dream True. As a vocal arranger and musical director, Michael’s arrangements have been featured on Broadway in Disaster! and Street Corner Symphony, Off-Broadway in Our Lady of Kibeho (Signature Theatre) and Three Mo’ Tenors (Little Shubert Theater), as well as regionally in Man in the Ring (Huntington Theatre).
As an educator and vocal performance professor, Michael serves as the Director of Diversity Initiatives at NYU Tisch School of the Arts’ Undergraduate Department of Drama. He is also an Associate Arts Professor and Head of Vocal Performance at NYU Tisch’s New Studio on Broadway. Additionally, he has taught at musical theater programs at University of Michigan (Ann Arbor, MI), University of Melbourne/Victorian College of Arts (Melbourne, Australia), and Carnegie Mellon University (Pittsburgh, PA).
Michael is the Founder, Artistic Director, and Music Director/Arranger of Broadway Inspirational Voices (BIV). In 2019, Broadway Inspirational Voices received the Tony Award Honor for Excellence in the Theatre from the American Theatre Wing. BIV is a diverse gospel choir composed of Broadway performers from such shows as Ain’t Too Proud, Alladin, The Book of Mormon, Tina: The Tina Turner Musical, Hamilton, The Lion King, Wicked, and The Prom. BIV has recorded three albums: Grace (DMP Records), Great Joy: A Gospel Christmas (Ghostlight Records), and Great Joy II: Around the World. In 2004, Michael
received a Grammy Award Nomination for his work on Great Joy: A Gospel Christmas. As an arranger and composer, Michael’s work has been performed on and off Broadway, at Lincoln Center, The Kennedy Center, City Center, and The Crystal Cathedral, as well as heard in such television shows and films as America’s Got Talent, Smash, Why Did I Get Married?, Preaching to the Choir, and the Tony Awards. His arrangements can be heard on the recordings of performers including Billy Porter, Leslie Odom Jr., Scott Alan, Steven Lutvak, Clay Aiken, Vanessa Williams, and many others. BIV has performed live with such greats as Mariah Carey, Gloria Estefan, Patti LuPone, Sara Bareilles, Jennifer Nettles, Harry Connick Jr., Jason Mraz, Sting, Elton John, Vanessa Williams, Patti LaBelle, Clay Aiken, and Heather Headley. Broadway Inspirational Voices is also a non-profit organization with Outreach Programs in partnership with Ronald McDonald House New York, Mosaic Prep Elementary School, and Covenant House New York.
Michael is a Founding Member of the following organizations: Black Theatre United (www.blacktheatreunited.com), a coalition seeking to influence widespread reform and combat systemic racism within the theatre industry and throughout the nation; MUSE (Musicians United for Social Change), an organization committed to creating diversity within the music departments of the theatre industry by providing access, internships, mentorships, and support to historically marginalized people of color; and NYCNext (www.nycnext.org), a group of New Yorkers uniting to rebuild a better New York through the creation of live pop-up events that produce New York moments of joy, while also giving back to the artists, neighborhoods, and people who make the city home.