Michael Zearott (born August 22, 1937, in San Francisco, California,[1][2] died July 21, 2019, in Clarkston, Washington),[3][4] was an American conductor, composer, pianist and music educator.
Michael Zearott was born in San Francisco, and spent most of his early years in the Los Angeles area, graduating from Westchester High School in 1955.
[5] In 1969 he was awarded the Gold Medal (First Prize) of the Dimitri Mitropoulos International Conducting Competition by Leonard Bernstein at the Philharmonic Hall of Lincoln Center, which as a result saw him become associate conductor of the Orchestre National de Monte Carlo for two years, performing to the likes of Prince Rainier and Grace Kelly.
[15] In 1987, he appeared with the Los Angeles Master Chorale at the Beethoven Festival as a pianist, alongside Mary Rawcliffe and Thomas Wilcox.
[16] He also served as the conductor on a tour organized by Francis Ford Coppola in the early 1980s,[17] and conducted many of the original Radio City performances of Abel Gance's Napoleon in 1997.