Drawing on more than 25 years of experience as a world music producer, educator, and social entrepreneur, Michael J. Santoro works at the intersection of traditional music, Chinese performing arts, and cross-cultural collaboration. His artistic and scholarly practice explores how traditional music, opera, and performance can foster intercultural understanding, social engagement, and educational innovation.

Michael's engagement with Chinese traditional music began in the San Francisco Bay Area during the 1990s, where he studied Cantonese music and opera (粵劇和廣東音樂), specializing in the dong xiao (洞簫), a traditional Chinese vertical flute. He performed with leading ensembles including the San Francisco Cantonese Opera Troupe (舊金山粵劇團) and Melody of China (漢聲樂團). In 1997, he co-founded the Jumping Buddha Ensemble (佛跳牆), which toured throughout the United States, performing at venues including San Francisco's War Memorial Opera House, Bethlehem Musikfest, and New York's Knitting Factory. 

In efforts to address the lack of traditional arts and cultures within the mainstream arts ecosystem, Michael founded a world music venue in San Francisco Chinatown in 1995 that evolved into the nonprofit San Francisco World Music Festival, presenting master musicians from Asia, the Middle East, Central Asia, and the Bay Area. In 2008, he relocated to Taipei, Taiwan where his musical study focused on Nanguan Daoist ritual music (南管), Beijing opera (京劇), and indigenous Thao pestle music (杵音) for nearly a decade. As a producer, he has created 15 commissioned large-scale productions that have brought Chinese traditional music, opera, and dance into dialogue with artists from diverse cultural traditions, including Taiwanese, Persian, Indian, Turkish, Azeri, Pakistani, Korean, Japanese, Kurdish, Kyrgyz, Tibetan, Uzbek, and more. His major works include Parting at Yang Guan Gate (陽關三疊) (2001), commissioned by the Goldman Environmental Prize and premiered at the San Francisco War Memorial Opera House; The Female Generals (楊門女將) (2004), developed with the Kronos Quartet and traditional Beijing opera artists; Journey to China (2007); The Epic Project (2011); The Opera Project (2012); and The War Project (2014). Through these collaborations, he has developed an international network of traditional musicians spanning 52 cities while pioneering new approaches to integrating digital streaming and immersive technologies into live performance.

Michael specializes in designing and producing cross-cultural collaborations between Chinese and American performing arts organizations. For more than two decades, he has worked with leading institutions including the China National Peking Opera Company (中國國家京劇院), Central Conservatory of Music (中央音樂學院), China Conservatory of Music (中國音樂學院), Minzu University of China (中央民族大學), members of the National Traditional Orchestra of China (中國中央民族樂團), Xinxin Nanguan Ensemble (心心南管樂坊), Taiwan National Guoguang Opera Company (國光劇團), and Ming Hwa Yuan Arts & Culture Group (明華園). His educational work with migrant youth in Beijing has been supported by the Sun Culture Foundation (陽光文化基金會). In 2013, he directed an international ensemble of musicians from India, Azerbaijan, and the United States on a performance tour of China featuring collaborations with migrant musicians at the Museum of Migrant Workers (打工文化藝術博物館). 

In addition to his creative work, Michael has also curated Chinese music and arts for the opening ceremony of San Francisco's Asian Art Museum, advised the Kennedy Center's Festival of China, co-founded a traditional Kyrgyz music school in Jany Tilek, Kyrgyzstan, and co-founded the Green Yayla Cultural Arts Festival in Turkey. He has served as a panelist for the California Arts Council, San Francisco Arts Commission, and Zellerbach Family Foundation, providing expertise in bridging Chinese culture, immigrant communities, traditional arts revitalization, and youth arts.

Michael brings his experience as an artist-producer into the classroom through courses in ethnomusicology, social entrepreneurship, intercultural performance, and international arts management. He has taught at Stanford University, American University, the University of Wisconsin, and Minzu University of China (中央民族大學), while also developing K–8 Chinese arts curricula, social-emotional learning programs for migrant youth schools in Beijing, and teacher-training initiatives. At San Francisco's Alice Fong Yu Alternative School, he established a Chinese arts program culminating in the annual production A Journey to China, featuring more than 125 students at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. 

In Spring 2027, he will launch the EALL 5477 course for The DEALL Performance Lab initiative housed in the Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures at The Ohio State University, where his work will integrate artistic research, intercultural performance, and community engaged scholarship.