Michael won a music scholarship to Magdalen College, Oxford before going to the Royal College of Music to study piano accompaniment with Roger Vignoles.
He enjoyed a long association with Welsh National Opera, firstly as a member of music staff and then as a freelance vocal consultant. Nowadays he devotes much of his time to coaching the next generation of singers and accompanists: he is consultant coach for the Harewood Artists at English National Opera, and on the teaching staff of various conservatoires including the Royal Academy of Music, the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama and the National Opera Studio. He is vice-chairman and a founding Trustee of the Kenneth Loveland Gift.
He has accompanied Dame Kiri Te Kanawa in recitals in Europe, Asia, Scandinavia, and at the 50th Israel Festival in Jerusalem; and with Bryn Terfel he has appeared in the UK, Norway, Asia, Australia, as well as in the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. Other singers whom he has accompanied in international recitals and recordings include Dame Anne Evans, Rebecca Evans, Nuccia Focile, Gwyn Hughes Jones, Katarina Karnéus, Christopher Maltman, Dennis O’Neill, Adrian Thompson, Ailish Tynan and Willard White. He acted as official accompanist for the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World competition on three occasions and has frequently broadcast on Radio 3. His recordings include two discs of Italian songs (with Rebecca Evans and Nuccia Focile), a disc of English songs with the baritone Anthony Michaels-Moore, the world premiere of Alun Hoddinott’s Towy Landscapes, and both Brahms clarinet Sonatas (plus the Sonata by Nino Rota) with Leslie Craven.