Dr. Michael T. Brown is a singer, teacher, and scholar with a passion for bringing individuals and communities together to create music. Over seven years at the French International School in Bethesda, MD, he worked to establish the music department as an integral part of the school community, developing ensembles and creating performing opportunities for students and community members, as well as building partnerships with arts professionals in the greater DC area. During his tenure as Director of Music Ministry at St. John's Episcopal Church in Columbia, SC, he has developed a positive, outward-facing vision for engaging members of the parish in musical opportunities. In the 2020 pandemic, this involved reviving a long-defunct bell choir and creating opportunities for parish members to engage safely within a digital space. He was a founding member of Columbia Operatic Laboratory, a non-profit collective of singers dedicated to bringing opera to new audiences and new spaces in the Midlands and beyond.​As a singer and actor, he has sung roles with Opera Carolina's Opera Xpress, Opera at USC, and the Victorian Lyric Opera Company, and he is a current member of the Opera Carolina Chorus. He has over 15 years of experience teaching music in private and group settings from elementary levels through university students and adults. He has had great success in preparing students for auditions for a variety of programs. In the classroom, he has taught group voice and instrumental classes, music appreciation, the history of rock and popular music, and the history of musical theater. He has been a guest clinician for choirs, offering short workshops in vocal technique and basic practice routines. Additionally, he has written a number of arrangements and compositions to meet the needs of the ensembles he has directed. ​His scholarly work has focused on the contributions of female composers in 19th-century France, specifically singer/composer/director Delphine Ugalde, for which Dr. Brown was a 2017 recipient of a UofSC SPARC grant to fund archival research at the Bibliothèque Nationale de France. Other research interests include the pedagogical practices of the internal Chinese Martial Arts and its applications in voice and music pedagogy; Dr. Brown is a Sifu/Instructor in T'ai Chi, Xing Yi Quan, and Baguazhang and is a disciple of Master Wes Adams at the Hall of the Snake and Crane (Balance Martial Arts) in Columbia SC.