About

Conductor Michael Poll’s work spans opera, symphonic repertoire, and contemporary music. Currently serving as acting Head of Orchestras at the Baltic Opera, Poll trained as a classical guitarist and has performed across North and South America and Europe, at prestigious venues including Barbican Hall, Wigmore Hall, and the National Theatre of Panama.

His 2026 recording with composer Gao Hong and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra won a gold medal in the world music awards, and his 2025 album with the RPO, featuring Barber’s Violin Concerto with Jack Liebeck alongside new works by David Conte and Byron Adams, was featured on the Apple Music Top 100. Marcin Zglinski praised “the conductor’s command of detail—the exceptional clarity and spaciousness of sound … and the finely balanced proportions.”

Poll’s debut guitar recording, 7-String Bach, was described as “masterful” by Gramophone magazine, and Wholenote celebrated his “warm, rich, and full tone.”

Poll has conducted Madama Butterfly and Carnaval of the Animals at the Baltic Opera, Le Nozze di Figaro and Cosi for Bloomsbury Opera in London, and Pirates of Penzance for Central City Opera (Colorado, USA). In Gdansk he has prepared productions of Carmen, Rigoletto, Krol Roger, and the creation Glos Potwora for music director Yaroslav Shemet, and for the State Opera of Poznan he prepared and conducted Dorian Gray—a new work by Elżbieta Sikora with a libretto by Sir David Pountney— for music director Jacek Kaspszyk. Other recent engagements include two performances with the Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra, and a recital for the Hay Festival.

Poll is currently Classical Music Programmer for Lancaster Arts in the UK and previously served as Associate Conductor of Central City Opera in Colorado. From 2014 to 2018, he was Music Director of the Goodensemble Orchestra in London, where he led a gala in honour of Queen Elizabeth, a cycle of Beethoven’s piano concerti, and premieres by Sato Matsui, Joseph Stillwell, David Grahame Taylor, Igor Maia, and Raymond Yiu.

Poll studied conducting under Leonid Grin and served as an intern to Barry Wordsworth and Sir Antonio Pappano at the Royal Ballet and Opera and to Franz Welser-Moest at the Salzburg Festival with the support of HMUK. A Fulbright and Marshall Scholar, he holds a BA in music summa cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania and was a visiting student at the Curtis Institute of Music. He also holds degrees from the Paderewski Academy of Music in Poland and the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, where he earned his Doctorate and served for two years as a Junior Fellow.

Poll has served on the faculty of the Bryn Mawr Conservatory of Music and the Polish Guitar Academy, was a fellow of the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, and a Klarman Fellow at Cornell University. He is also active in the educational initiative SoundingLab, which brings live music into schools in the US and the UK.