Michelle Kardos
Ph.D. Student, Musical Arts
USC Thornton School of Music
Email: mkardos@usc.edu
Michelle Kardos, M.M., MT-BC, CAGO is an educator, music therapist, and organist. She is currently the Assistant Organist at Pasadena Presbyterian Church. Alongside this, she is the Program Assistant for the Thornton Community Engagement Program and a grader for the University of Southern California. Through the involvement of her local chapter, Michelle has been a member of the American Guild of Organists since 2014. From 2018-2021, she served as the Secretary for the Seton Hill University Chapter of the American Guild of Organists. Currently, she is serving as a member of both the AGO Task Force for Gender Equity and the AGO Young Organists Committee. Michelle has received both her Service Playing and Colleague Certification from the AGO. She is also a member of SWO, AMTA, and MTNA.
She obtained her Master of Music in Sacred Music at Duquesne University. While at Duquesne, Michelle was accepted into the National Music Honor Society, Pi Kappa Lambda. At graduation, she was presented with the Jean Langlais Award, awarded to a graduating organ student with the highest academic standing in Sacred Music. She obtained her Bachelor of Music in Music Therapy along with the Sacred Music Certificate, Pastoral Ministry Certificate, and psychology minor at Seton Hill University. There she studied organ with Mr. Edgar Highberger and piano with Mr. Edward Kuhn. During her studies, Michelle was named the Presser Scholar, based on her merit and achievement in the music program, and was accepted into the International Psychology Honor Society, Psi Chi. Michelle is attending the University of Southern California to pursue a Doctor of Musical Arts in Sacred Music studying organ under Professor Cherry Rhodes.
