American composer and conductor, Michael O'Brien, studied conducting and composition in Vienna, Austria, at the Hochschule f. Musik, where he earned two Artist Diplomas with distinctions. In 2002, he was awarded an Individual Artist Fellowship from the District of Columbia Commission on the Arts and Humanities. He has also held a Fulbright Fellowship, a Smithsonian Graduate Fellowship, and a Board of Trustees Fellowship from Catholic University. His works have won prizes from the Alban Berg Foundation, the Arts Council of the City of Vienna, Austria, the David Lloyd Kreeger Foundation, the Annapolis Fine Arts Foundation, and others. From 1992 to 2002, he was Artistic Director-Conductor of the St. Cecilia Chamber Orchestra in Washington, DC. He is now director of Upper School Bands at the Flint Hill School in Oakton, VA and holds a Ph.D. in musicology from Catholic University.