Michal Stahl
Michal Stahl, born in Bratislava, has been encouraged by his family to study music since his childhood. When he was six years old, he was admitted to the Bratislava Boys Choir in which he sang for 12 years. Thanks to the interpretation of musical compositions from all periods, he broadened his musical horizons, gained insight into choral arranging and composition, and a desire for musical composition awakened in him.
Thanks to the choir, he got to know almost the whole Europe, Russia and he performed in the Slovak National Theatre in Giacomo Puccini's works: Tosca and La bohéme, Ruggiero Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci, children's choral roles, and also in the Vienna State Opera in Arrigo Boito’s Mefistofele; all under the baton of the choirmaster Magdaléna Rovňáková.
At the same age, he was admitted to an elementary art school, which was interconnected with the subjects of a general elementary school. He studied musical theory, music history, composing and conducting, took piano lessons and when he was 18, he conducted the girl choir Canens, as a part of his practical training, with which he went on a tour alongside its main choirmaster to the Eastern Slovakia.
His journey continued to a grammar school and then to the Bratislava Conservatory to which he was admitted to study at the department of composition under the guidance of the composer Ľuboš Bernáth. During his studies at the Conservatory, he took a compulsory subject of conducting in which he was led by Július Karaba. He wrote several compositions for chamber groupings of instruments, a mixed choir, and finished his studies with a premiere of his first piano concert.
He became a member of the Bratislava Conservatory Chamber Choir with which he performed on a concert tour in Slovakia and Austria and presented the works of W. A. Mozart and G. F. Handel. He has been with the choir since, not only as a singer, but also as an assistant now.
In 2009 he was at the birth of the vocal group Rendezvous in which he acted as the artistic leader and main arranger of songs.
After completing his studies at the Conservatory, he continued to study at the Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava, where he attended the Master's degree programme in Composition, under the supervision of Ľuboš Bernáth. In 2019, he graduated from the Academy of Performing Arts with his Master’s thesis: A mass for soloists, orchestra and a choir, and he was awarded the title Master of Arts. While at the school, he also took choir conducting. He is constantly broadening his musical horizons; being acquainted with the 20th century music and contemporary music, he tries to reflect these elements in his work. His compositions were performed at the festivals Orfeus, AsynChronie, New Slovak Music Festival and also on the occasion of the anniversary of the birth of the prominent Slovak poet Július Lenko, and at various other events. His music has been used in several student films and documentaries.
He performs at the New Stage Theater in Bratislava in the offstage choir in the productions Iago, Cats, Mamma Mia and on the stage in the world-famous operetta work by Franz Lehár: The Merry Widow and in the musical by Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schönberg: Les Misérables. In the theatre, he is also an assistant of the main choirmaster.
Besides being a member of a choir called Bratislava Vocal Consort and performing in the New Stage Theatre, he is also the choirmaster of the Mixed Choir Tirnavia with which he has performed at several dozen concerts in Slovakia, Czech Republic and Italy, and he took part with the choir in the important Slovak festival Trnava Musical Spring several times. The choir performed at the opening ceremony of the Mikuláš Schneider-Trnavský International Vocal Competition, it recorded a public record for the Slovak Radio "Rádio Devín na cestách" (Radio Devín on road) and they enriched the festival of contemporary music Orfeus with their performance of a number of compositions by Slovak contemporary composers.
In 2018, he became the main organizer of the Orfeus Festival which is to be dedicated to the artistic contribution of George Gershwin and Leonard Bernstein.