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ARTISTIC DIRECTOR/CONDUCTOR
Conductor and clarinetist Michael Kissinger began his music career at age 16 when he produced his first major concert featuring the legendary big band jazz clarinetist Woody Herman and The Thundering Herd.  For the past thirty years he has worked professionally as a clarinetist, conductor, composer, concert producer and music educator.  He is co-founder and Artistic Director/Conductor of Bravo! Vancouver and is the Founder and Artistic Director of the Vancouver Wine & Jazz Festival.  He is currently United States Guest Conductor of the Dubrovnik Symphony Orchestra (DSO) in Dubrovnik, Croatia. In addition To conducting the DSO he is also developing the Dubrovnik Jazz & Wine Festival in partnership with the DSO, the City of Dubrovnik, international sponsors and other Croatian and American partners.

Michael Kissinger has performed as a solo clarinetist and with orchestras, jazz ensembles and chamber groups throughout the U.S. and Europe including such diverse ensembles as the Spoleto Festival dei Due Mondi in Spoleto, Italy, Heidelberg Opera Orchestra, Dubrovnik Symphony Orchestra, Ciompi String Quartet, Carolina String Quartet, North Carolina Symphony, Greensboro Symphony, Lansing Symphony, St. Stephen’s Chamber Orchestra, Raleigh Ballet Orchestra, Raleigh Civic Symphony, New Washingtonian’s Jazz Orchestra and the Rochester Big Band, among others.  From 1989-1991 he was a solo artist in the North Carolina Visiting Artist program.  He co-founded the American Music Festival, now in its 20th anniversary season, in Beaufort, North Carolina, and was Artistic Director until 1993.  He has performed on numerous commercial recordings, including trumpeter Wynton Marsalis’s Grammy-nominated album, Carnival, and the CBS Masterworks CD Quiet City.  Dr. Kissinger has served on music faculties and performed masterclasses at the University of North Carolina-Wilmington, Meredith College, the Eastman School of Music, Albion College, Summer Arts Institute of Rutgers University, Hochstein School of Music, North Carolina State University, Wake Technical College, Pamlico Community College, Rocky Mount High School and the New England Music Camp in Waterville, Maine.  He has produced two CD recordings featuring the Bravo! Chorale: Hear My Prayer: The American Spiritual (2006) and a live recording, Handel’s Messiah—An Oratorio (2000).  His numerous choral music compositions are published exclusively by Sound Music Publications (www.smpjazz.com).

As Artistic Director of the Vancouver Wine & Jazz Festival, Dr. Kissinger has promoted and produced more than 40 internationally acclaimed jazz and blues concert artists since 1998 including: Allen Toussaint, Arturo Sandoval, Bela Fleck, BeauSoleil, Blind Boys of Alabama, Blood, Sweat & Tears, Bo Diddley, Booker T. Jones, Bobby Shew, Chick Corea, Chuck Mangione, David Sanborn, Diane Schuur, Dirty Dozen Brass Band, Dr. John, Eddie Palmieri, Ed Shaughnessy, Ernie Watts, Four Freshmen, James Cotton, Jean-Luc Ponty, John Hammond, John Pizzarelli, Jose Feliciano, Judy Collins, Kenny Loggins, Los Lobos, Mavis Staples, Melissa Manchester, Nicholas Payton, Poncho Sanchez, Preservation Hall Jazz Band, Ramsey Lewis, Regina Carter, Rita Coolidge, Savoy-Doucet Cajun Band, Spanish Harlem Orchestra, Spyro Gyra, Stanley Clarke, Stanley Jordan, Take 6, The Brubeck Brothers Quartet, The Gospel Hummingbirds, The Louis Armstrong Society Jazz Band, The 5th Dimension, The Rippingtons, The Temptations, The Yellowjackets, WAR and others; as well as more than 100 local and regional jazz bands.

The Vancouver Wine & Jazz Festival is the #1 cultural tourism event in Vancouver and Southwest Washington.  It is has been called the “. . . largest festival of its kind in the Northwest. . .” (KATU 2 TV, Portland, Oregon) and “. . . one of the most important jazz festivals on the west coast. . .” (NW Jazz Profile Magazine).  In 2010 the Festival was featured on a new National Geographic GeoTourism Map of the Central Cascades, produced in partnership with National Geographic and state tourism bureaus of Washington and Oregon (Travel Oregon and Experience Washington) see (www.thecentralcascades.com/vancouver-wine-and-jazz-festival). 

Michael holds the Doctorate of Musical Arts degree (DMA) from the Eastman School of Music, and earned graduate (MM) and undergraduate (BM) degrees from Michigan State University and the University of North Carolina.

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MUSIC DIRECTOR/CONDUCTOR
Pianist and Conductor Maria Manzo is co-founder and Music Director of Bravo! Vancouver.  She is the Founder and Conductor of the Bravo! Vancouver Chorale.  Since 1992 Dr. Manzo has been Director of Music at St. Joseph Church in Vancouver, Washington, where she directs all aspects of the liturgical music program.  Dr. Manzo has led her Bravo! Vancouver Chorale and St. Joseph Parish Choir on numerous regional, national and international concert tours.  In July 2009 she directed the Bravo! Chorale and Dubrovnik Symphony Orchestra (DSO) on a concert tour in Croatia, with concerts in Dubrovnik, Cavtat and Medjugorje (Bosnia-Herzegovina).  A highlight of the tour included directing the music in a special large outdoor Mass and concert at St. James Cathedral in Medjugorje.  Dr. Manzo also led the Bravo! Chorale, Sno-King Chorale (Edmonds, WA) and Dubrovnik Symphony Orchestra in their successful Pacific Northwest tour in the fall of 2008 which featured American and Croatian choral music.  The tour included 7 concerts in Portland, Vancouver, Olympia, Edmonds and Seattle, and venues including Portland Center to the Performing Arts, Washington Performing Arts Center and Seattle Center.  In 2001 Dr. Manzo’s Parish Choir and the Bravo! Chorale were invited to perform at the 25th Annual National Pastoral Musician’s Conference in Washington D.C.  This invitation developed into an East Coast concert tour to Washington D.C. and New York City featuring all-American sacred repertoire.  The New Washingtonians Jazz Orchestra from the Duke Ellington School of the Arts collaborated with Dr. Manzo on this tour, with a final concert at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Concert Hall in New York City.  She has also led the St. Joseph Parish Choir on tours to Italy, with concerts in Rome, Florence, Venice and Assisi.

Maria Manzo has produced three CD recordings featuring the St. Joseph Parish Choir under her direction including: Then Sings My Soul; and Hallelujah! A St. Joseph Christmas; and Songs in the Key of Faith.  The Bravo! Chorale released the CD recording Hear My Prayer: The American Spiritual under her direction.  It features classic & contemporary American Spirituals, including those of Hairston and others.

Dr. Manzo is recognized for her extensive scholarship on the American Negro Spiritual, and is an authority on the music of composer and arranger Jester Hairston, composer of Amen and other well-known spirituals.  She is currently working with a consortium of American scholars and musicians to create a documentary film on the life and music of composer Jester Hairston.  Maria earned her B.A. and Master of Music degrees from Eastern Washington University and her Doctorate of Arts degree from the University of Northern Colorado.