Michael Rossi has been a member of the trumpet section of the Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra since 2002. In addition to playing in the orchestra, he is also a prominent conductor. He recently made debuts with the Philadelphia Orchestra, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and the Orchestra Sinfonia de Xalapa as well as the opening season concerts and First Annual PepsiCo National Young Artist Competition with the Charleston Symphony Orchestra. He made his international debut conducting Plácido Domingo and the Chinese National Opera Orchestra in Beijing in a live television broadcast for the opening of the Reignwood Theatre. 

As an opera conductor he made his Washington National Opera main stage debut conducting Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro and was the music director for two productions of WNO’s Hansel & Gretel. He also led the WNO Orchestra for the first National Endowment of the Arts Opera Honors, which was broadcast live on NPR, and the orchestra’s Strathmore Hall Debut concert. 

As a Cover Conductor for the Philadelphia Orchestra he has had the pleasure of assisting world-renowned conductors including Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, Stéphane Denève, Manfred Honeck, Itzhak Perlman, Emmanuel Krivine, and Vladimir Jurowski.

He has conducted Puccini's La Boheme, Ward's the Crucible and a special Wagner Concert with Christine Goerke and Alan Held for the Miami Music Festival. Additional engagements include debuts with the Amarillo Symphony and the Alexandria  Symphony.

Michael graduated from the Manhattan School of Music and the Washington National Opera’s Domingo-Cafritz Young Artist Program, having been selected for the program by world-renowned tenor Plácido Domingo. Michael was awarded a fellowship to the American Academy of Conducting at Aspen in 2009 and 2010 where he studied with David Zinman, Robert Spano, Hugh Wolff and Larry Rachleff.