Michelle Kasanofsky

Music Director

Michelle Kasanofsky has been playing piano for almost 56 years and is a professional musician as well as a music educator. Michelle received a scholarship to Berklee College of Music in Boston and studied jazz piano there as well as studying classical piano at Boston University. She completed her B.A. degree in performance cum laude at Dowling College in Oakdale, New York where she studied classical pedagogy under the tutelage of the world renowned piano maestro, Dr. Carlo Lombardi. Michelle continued on to achieve her Master’s Degree in Music Education from C. W. Post Long Island University in Greenvale, New York in 1998 and in 2016 completed her Education Leadership Specialist degree from Nova Southeastern University.

Michelle is originally from New York and spent most of her life on Long Island. While in New York she music directed many off-Broadway productions which included Always, Patsy Cline and performed all over the world in Europe, Japan and Korea. Since moving down to Florida in 1998, Michelle has taught chorus, drama and dual enrollment music history at Port Charlotte High School. In 2014, she was selected as Charlotte County’s Teacher of the Year. She met her New Yorker husband, Neil Kasanofsky at a local theater company’s production of Red, Hot and Cole in 2000 and they have been together ever since. They have a blended family of 6 children, 7 grandchildren, a dog and a cat. Since 2000 Michelle has performed and music directed at Venice Theatre. Her productions have included Ben Vereen’s Hair, Mamma Mia, Cabaret, Toxic Avenger and Dreamgirls to name a few. She has also md’d at Sarasota Players, Manatee Players and Charlotte Players. Michelle has played for Broadway touring companies at venues such as Barbara B Mann and Ruth Eckerd Hall for shows including Chorus Line, Legally Blonde and West Side Story as well as accompanying artists such as Bernadette Peters and The Irish Tenors.