Researching Michael Christie

Christie was born in Greenville, South Carolina. He was an All-American at the University of South Carolina in 1992. Christie got his start in professional golf in 1993 by qualifying for the U.S. Open, where he finished T-52. He won his first pro tournament on the then Nike Tour at the Carolina Classic in Raleigh, North Carolina in 1995 by shooting a tournament record of 22-under-par. He played on the Nike Tour from 1994 to 1996 winning four times and earned his PGA Tour card as a result of his three victories in 1996, finishing second Stewart Cink on the money list. Christie played on the PGA Tour from 1997 to 2000; his best finish was a tie for sixth at the Greater Vancouver Open in 1997.

Christie began experiencing debilitating physical ailments beginning in 1998 which curtailed his golfing career. Through several surgeries, he attempted comebacks to the professional ranks through 2003. Christie died of a self-inflicted wound at the age of 34.

In addition to his successes on the PGA and Nationwide Tours, Christie won twice on the Hooters Tour. His teammates at the University of South Carolina included current pros Carl Paulson and Brett Quigley.

Christie graduated from the Oberlin College Conservatory of Music with a bachelor's degree in trumpet performance. His conducting teachers have included Peter Jaffe, Eiji Oue, and Robert Spano. He first came to international attention in 1995 when he received a special prize for "outstanding potential" at the First International Sibelius Conductor’s Competition in Helsinki at age 21. Following the competition, he became an apprentice conductor with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and subsequently worked with Daniel Barenboim, conducting both in Chicago and at the Berlin State Opera. From 1996 to 1998, he was associate conductor of the Helsinki Philharmonic. Franz Welser-Möst named Christie assistant conductor at the Zurich Opera for the 1997–98 season.

Christie was the music director of the Colorado Music Festival in Boulder from 2000 to 2013. He is credited with nearly doubling attendance and revenue at the festival during his tenure. He then took the title of music director laureate of the festival.

In December 2004, Christie was appointed music director of the Phoenix Symphony. In August 2005, Christie was named the 5th music director of the Brooklyn Philharmonic, with his first concert in February 2006. His Brooklyn Philharmonic tenure concluded in June 2010. In January 2012, Christie was announced as the next music director of Minnesota Opera. In parallel, he concluded his Phoenix Symphony tenure in 2013, at which time he took the title of music director laureate, for a three-season term. With the Phoenix Symphony, Christie has recorded music of Mark Grey for Naxos Records.

Christie began his tenure as music director of the Minnesota Opera with the 2012–2013 season. In February 2014, Michael Christie's contract with the Minnesota Opera was extended to the 2017–2018 season. With the Minnesota Opera, Christie has conducted world premieres of new three operas, commissioned by the Minnesota Opera as part of its New Works Initiative: Kevin Puts' Silent Night (2011), which won the Pulitzer Prize in music; Puts' The Manchurian Candidate (2015); and Paul Moravec's The Shining (2016). Christie concluded his music directorship of Minnesota Opera at the close of the 2017-2018 season.

Christie won a 2019 Grammy Award (Best Opera Recording) for the world premiere recording of Mason Bates’ The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs with The Santa Fe Opera (PENTATONE). In 2017, he led the world premiere performances at The Santa Fe Opera.

In 2019, Christie was appointed Music Director of the New West Symphony, serving the greater Los Angeles area in Thousand Oaks and Oxnard, California.

Outside of the USA, Christie was chief conductor of the Queensland Orchestra from 2001 to December 2004. Whilst in Australia, Christie met his future wife Alexis, a medical doctor. The couple married in 2006, and they have two children. The family resides in Minneapolis.

Born and raised in Thunder Bay, Ontario, Christie later moved to Vancouver, British Columbia to pursue professional skateboarding, and studied psychology at Simon Fraser University. He subsequently worked for several years in social services before returning to the University of British Columbia's creative writing program in 2008. He published The Beggar's Garden in early 2011.

The Beggar's Garden won the 2011 City of Vancouver Book Award.

His debut novel, If I Fall, If I Die, a coming-of-age-story about the son of a reclusive agoraphobic filmmaker who leaves home for the first time to search for a lost boy, was published early 2015 in the US by Hogarth, and in Canada by McClelland & Stewart. The novel was longlisted for the 2015 Giller Prize.

His second novel, Greenwood, was published in 2019 and was longlisted for the 2019 Giller Prize. In 2020, the novel won the Arthur Ellis Award for Best Novel.

He is married to writer Cedar Bowers.