Canadian pianist Michelle Marie Santiago enjoys a varied career as a chamber musician, accompanist, opera repetiteur, vocal coach and piano teacher. She currently resides in London where she is a freelance pianist, chamber musician, repetiteur, vocal coach and piano teacher.
She holds Piano Performance degrees from the Université de Montréal (DMus, MMus) and the University of Alberta (BMus), as well as a Master of Performance in Piano Accompaniment and an Artist Diploma in Opera Studies from the Guildhall School of Music & Drama. She has studied piano with John Perry, Julian Martin, Paul Stewart, Marc Durand and accompaniment with Pamela Lidiard, Eugene Asti and Michael McMahon, among others. She was formerly a sessional instructor in piano at the Université de Montréal where she also assisted Paul Stewart. In addition to her formal studies, she has attended the Aspen Music Festival, the Orford Arts Centre Academy, the Banff Centre for the Arts and the Gijón International Piano Festival, the Franz Schubert Institut, the Académie Francis Poulenc and the Vancouver International Song Institute.
She has been pianist-in-residence for Musique sur Mer and a staff pianist for the Canadian Vocal Arts Institute, the Université de Montréal and McGill University in Montreal, Canada and is currently a staff accompanist at the Guildhall School. As a repetiteur, she has worked for the Royal Opera House, Into Opera, Opera on Location, Opera Cameratina, Random Opera, Spectra Ensemble, Scherzo Ensemble, British Youth Opera and Virtually Opera, among others.
Michelle has been a prizewinner at the Canadian Federation of Music Teachers Association National Piano Competition, the Canadian Music Competitions, and the Concours de l’orchestre symphonique de Montréal. She was awarded the Piano Accompaniment Prize and the Tracey Chadwell Memorial Prize for contemporary song at the Guildhall School, as well as the Denis Horner Accompanist’s Prize at the Kathleen Ferrier Bursary for Young Singers Competition.
