Swiss-born Michael Zaugg is a 2026 JUNO Award-winning conductor and noted pedagogue, and a prominent voice in the Canadian choral scene.

As Managing & Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of Pro Coro Canada, Edmonton's professional chamber choir (Artistic Director since 2012, Managing Director since 2019), and as conductor of the Axios Men's Ensemble, Michael leads ensembles recognized at the highest national level. In March 2026, the recording of Benedict Sheehan's Ukrainian War Requiem - conducted by Michael for Cappella Records - won the JUNO Award for Classical Album of the Year (Large Ensemble): the first a cappella recording ever to win the category, the first award for a choir outside Ontario and Quebec, and the first JUNO in Pro Coro Canada's 45-year history. In November 2026 he leads the work's nine-city national tour, from Edmonton to Toronto.

Michael previously led, in Montreal, the St. Lawrence Choir (2008-2013) and voces boreales (2006-2015), and in Ottawa the Cantata Singers of Ottawa (2005-2014).

Active as guest conductor and visiting artist, Michael has worked with the BBC Singers, the Vancouver Chamber Choir, the National Youth Choir of Canada, Vancouver's musica intima, the Nova Scotia, Alberta, New Brunswick and Ontario youth choirs, Thirteen Strings, and the Longueuil Symphony Orchestra. His US debut was with the Grammy-nominated Choir of Trinity Wall Street in New York. Since 2016 he has also led a 60-voice male choir of singers from Canada, the US and Ukraine, performing Ukrainian sacred music on tours from the Prairies to Philadelphia, Rochester and New York City.

As Chorus Master of the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal (2006-2011), Michael prepared choruses of up to 1,500 singers for Kent Nagano, including the award-winning production of Messiaen's Saint François d'Assise. He also prepared the Cantata Singers of Ottawa for appearances with the National Arts Centre Orchestra under Franz-Paul Decker, David Lockington, Trevor Pinnock, Helmuth Rilling and Paul Goodwin. In Switzerland he served as Chorus Master of the Symphonic Chorus Regiochor Basel, and he continues to appear regularly as guest conductor in his home country - most recently as guest lecturer at the Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK), at the Musikhochschule Basel, and at CHOR.COM in Leipzig, in October 2026.

A passionate pedagogue, Michael is deeply committed to emerging artists. He has taught at the Halifax Conducting Institute and the Kodály Summer Course at the University of Alberta, and from 2018 -2020 has been Program Director of CHORAL ART at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity. He’s again faculty at the 2026 Edition of CHORAL ART. He created #connect, Pro Coro Canada's educational program for young composers, singers and conductors. Between 2008 and 2025, ensembles under his direction commissioned and premiered 40 Canadian choral works.

Michael Zaugg's honours include the Choral Canada Award for Outstanding Innovation (2020), the Edmonton Artists Trust Fund Award (2020), and the CON SPIRITO Award from Choir Alberta (2022). Originally an accomplished tenor, he was the first Swiss conductor admitted to the post-graduate program in Professional Choir Conducting at the Royal Academy of Music in Stockholm, where he worked weekly with singers of the Swedish Radio Choir and guest-conducted the Adolf Fredrik's Girls Choir and the Mikaeli Chamber Choir. He holds degrees in voice and music education from the University of Basel, and in 2018 was awarded an honorary Doctor of Music degree (Hon DMus) from King's College, University of Aberdeen, Scotland.