Michael Palmer (born 8 May 1945, Indianapolis, Indiana) is an American orchestral conductor.
Since 1993 he has served as Artistic Director of the annual Bellingham Festival of Music (Bellingham, Washington, USA).
He has also served as Artistic Director of the Orchestral Institute at the Quartz Mountain Music Festival (Lone Wolf, Oklahoma) since 2006.
Palmer began his professional career at age 21 when he became Assistant Conductor of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra in 1967, for which he was later named Associate Conductor.
In that capacity he also became the first director of the Atlanta Symphony Youth Orchestra in 1974.
In 1975 he was one of the first young conductors to be selected as an EXXON/Arts Endowment Conductor by the National Endowment for the Arts.
He left the ASO in 1977 to become Music Director of the Wichita Symphony Orchestra (1977β1990), followed by posts of Music Director of the New Haven Symphony Orchestra (1989β1997) and the American Sinfonietta (1991β2002).
Palmer also was Guest Conductor for three seasons for the Houston Symphony Orchestra (1978β1981) and a Co-Principal Guest Conductor of the Denver Symphony Orchestra (1979β1982).
He has also held academic conducting posts as Director of Orchestras for Wichita State University (1999β2004) and Georgia State University (2004βpresent).