Chair, Region 1; Member, Board of Directors
Elected November 2025; term ends November 2027
MICHAEL HIX is Chair of the Department of Music and Coordinator of Vocal Studies at the University of New Mexico. With over 25 years of teaching experience, he has worked with students of all levels and in various musical styles including opera/classical, musical theatre, praise and worship, jazz, folk, gospel, and pop.
As a musicologist, Professor Hix received the American Musicological Society Thomas Hampson Award. He is also a Simonton Literary Prize and DAAD (Deutscher Akademischer Austausch Dienst) Research Visit grant winner. His research has been published in The Journal of Singing, VOICEPrints: The Journal of the New York Singing Teachers’ Association, The Choral Journal, and The American Theater Organ Society Journal. He also contributed numerous entries to the Grove Dictionary of American Music, 2nd edition, published by Oxford University Press. His book An American Organist in Paris: The Letters of Orville Lee Erwin 1930–1931 was published by Scarecrow Press in 2012. Professor Hix has presented lecture recitals on Dessau’s Lieder at national conventions of the American Musicological Society, the College Music Society, and at the Texoma Regional NATS Conference. He has served as President of the Rocky Mountain Chapter of the American Musicological Society, and is an active member of the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS).
Professor Hix has been featured in concerts with the Boston Pops, Oregon Bach Festival, Arizona Bach Festival, Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra, Santa Fe Pro Musica, Santa Fe Symphony, Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, Idaho Falls Symphony, Winston-Salem Symphony, Georgia Symphony, New Mexico Philharmonic, San Juan Symphony, Mid-Columbia Symphony, True Concord Voices and Orchestra, Santa Fe Desert Chorale, Tallahassee Symphony, Highland Park Chorale, Tupelo Symphony, Montgomery Symphony, Brevard Symphony Orchestra, New York City’s Trinity Lutheran Bach Vespers Series, and the Tallahassee Bach Parley, among others. In 2019, he was awarded 3rd Place in the American Prize Competition for Oratorio and Art Song Performance. His debut CD of bass solo cantatas by Christoph Graupner (1683–1760) was released by Affetto Records and distributed by Naxos in 2023. Professor Hix has sung with Opera Southwest, Ohio Light Opera, Amherst Early Music Festival, Opera Birmingham, Ashlawn-Highland Opera, and Greenville Light Opera Works, among others.
Professor Hix holds Master of Music degrees in Voice Performance and Historical Musicology from Florida State University, and a Doctor of Music in Voice Performance from Florida State University.
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Updated January 2026