Michael Morgan (conductor) Conservatory of Music, he spent a summer at the Oberlin College Conservatory at Tanglewood. There he was a student of Gunther Schuller and Seiji Ozawa, and it was at that time that he first worked with Leonard Bernstein. In 1980, he won first prize in the Hans Swarovsky International Conductors Competition in Vienna, Austria and became Assistant Conductor of the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra, under Leonard Slatkin. His operatic debut was in 1982 at the Vienna State Opera in Mozart's "The Abduction from the Seraglio". In 1986, Sir Georg Solti chose him to become the Assistant Conductor of the Chicago
Lisette Oropesa at the Ravinia Festival as Susanna in "Le nozze di Figaro", conducted by James Conlon; for Opera New Jersey as Lucia in "Lucia di Lammermoor"; at Arizona Opera as Gilda in "Rigoletto", again as Lucia; and at the New Orleans Opera as Gilda and as Leïla in "Les pêcheurs de perles". In April and May 2012, Oropesa appeared with the Pittsburgh Opera as Konstanze in a production of "The Abduction from the Seraglio" set on the Orient Express in the Pasha's private train car. In October 2012, she again performed the role of Lucia with the Arizona Opera to success.