Michael Downes was born in Stockport in 1968. His early musical experience included a period as a church chorister and lessons on the piano and cello, and he later played the cello and double bass in county youth orchestras in Oxfordshire and Cambridgeshire

He took a first degree in English at King's College, Cambridge, graduating with a First in 1990. While at Cambridge he spent much of his time playing the cello (studying with teachers including Ioan Davies of the Fitzwilliam Quartet and Caroline Bosanquet) and conducting the college orchestra. As a result, he decided to pursue his postgraduate studies in music, completing an M.Phil on the music of Shostakovich at Cambridge and then moving to the University of Sussex, where he wrote his doctorate on the music, criticism and ideas of Debussy. Whilst at Sussex, he gained invaluable experience in conducting, directing university ensembles in numerous works, including Beethoven's Symphony No. 9, Berlioz's Roméo et Juliette, Messiaen's L'Ascension and Stravinsky's opera Le Rossignol (in a rare staged performance), and studying conducting with teachers including George Hurst (at the Summer School), Denise Ham and Lionel Friend. Since leaving Sussex Michael has taken private lessons with Colin Metters, director of conducting studies at the Royal Academy of Music.

Michael has worked as a conductor with numerous choral, orchestral and operatic groups, both professional and amateur, in London, Sussex and Kent. His choral experience includes periods as the musical director of choral societies in Seaford (1995-6) and Faversham (1997-9). From 1999 to 2004 he was the musical director of the Darent Valley Choir, with whom he conducted works including Puccini's Messa di Gloria, Mozart's C minor Mass, Haydn's Creation, Elgar's The Music Makers, Fauré's Requiem, Poulenc's Gloria, Dvorak's Stabat Mater, and Orff's Carmina Burana.

In January 2005 Michael took up the musical directorships of both Sittingbourne Orpheus Choral Society and the Maidstone-based Old Barn Orchestral Society. Michael is also the artistic director of the Bergamo Ensemble, a group of young professionals based in and around London specialising in twentieth-century and contemporary music, which he founded in 1999 with the violinist James Widden. Michael has since conducted the ensemble in concerts in the Canterbury, Brighton and Sounds New festivals, in programmes including premieres by many of Britain's leading young composers, including Dai Fujikura, Ben Foskett, Roderick Watkins, and Paul Max Edlin.

In 2003 Michael conducted the premiere of inside out ii by Tansy Davies, a Rochester-based composer, a performance which was praised by the Guardian for its 'Irresistible energy... at once playful and precipitous'.

Alongside his busy conducting schedule, Michael also teaches music in higher education: he has previously lectured at the University of Sussex, the Open University and Canterbury Christ Church University College, and since October 2003 he has worked for Rose Bruford College as the director of its BA Opera Studies degree, an innovative programme taken by more than 200 students from around the world, studying by distance learning.

Michael is also a writer and lecturer on music. He has collaborated on books with Jonathan Harvey, the eminent British composer, and Nike Wagner, great-granddaughter of Richard, and his reviews have appeared in journals including the Times Literary Supplement and Opera Now. He lectures on opera for the Royal Opera House and the Glyndebourne Festival, and in 2005 lectured for the Wexford Opera Festival in Ireland.

In September 2006, Michael took up a new post as Director of Music at Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge which meant that he and his family moved to Suffolk and SOCS was obliged to bid him farewell.