The Stuttgart-born baritone with Hungarian roots began his musical career with the Stuttgarter Hymnus-Chorknaben (Stuttgart Hymnus Boys' Choir) and studied voice, Lied interpretation, and conducting with Rudolf Piernay, Irwin Gage, and Klaus Arp in Mannheim and Saarbrücken.

The artist continues to develop steadily on the world’s major stages: from Wolfram in Tannhäuser (Bayreuth Festival), Stolzius in Zimmermann's Die Soldaten, and Amfortas in Parsifal (under K. Petrenko) at the Bavarian State Opera, Kurwenal (Tristan und Isolde) in Baden-Baden and Berlin under Sir Simon Rattle, Dallapiccola's Il Prigioniero in Copenhagen under Gianandrea Noseda (released on CD by the Chandos label in 2020), the world premiere of Scartazzini's opera Edward II in Berlin, as Don Alfonso in Così fan tutte at the Salzburg Festival, as Beckmesser in a new production of Wagner's Die Meistersinger at Oper Frankfurt (directed by Johannes Erath, musical direction by Sebastian Weigle), as Amfortas (Parsifal) under Philippe Jordan, and as Alberich in Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen under Franz Welser-Möst at the Vienna State Opera, as well as the Count (Le Nozze di Figaro) in Toulouse.

Michael Nagy is also in high demand worldwide in the concert and oratorio repertoire. Engagements have taken him to internationally renowned orchestras such as the Berlin Philharmonic, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the NHK Symphony Orchestra Tokyo, the Orchestre de Paris, the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, the Konzerthausorchester Berlin, the New Japan Philharmonic Orchestra, the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, and to various festivals, including those in Schleswig-Holstein and the Rheingau, the Salzburg Festival, the Tanglewood Festival (USA), the Bayreuth Festival, and Grafenegg. 

In the 2025/26 season, Michael Nagy can once again be experienced with a wide-ranging repertoire: including Orff's Carmina Burana with the Gürzenich Orchestra under Andrés Orozco-Estrada in Cologne, at the Rheingau Musik Festival, and in Lucerne. He will sing Bach's St. Matthew Passion in Tokyo and Kawasaki under Jonathan Nott, the St. John Passion in Dortmund under Jordan de Souza, and Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 with the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig under Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla. In Rome, he will perform Haydn's The Creation under the direction of Daniel Harding, and in Helsinki, Jörg Widmann's orchestrated Dichterliebe (Schumannliebe) with the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra under Widmann himself. At the end of the season, concerts featuring Mahler's Symphony No. 8 with the Vienna Philharmonic under Andris Nelsons are on the program. 

In opera, he can be heard in Munich as the Music Master in Strauss's Ariadne, at the Erl/Tyrol Festival once again as Amfortas in Parsifal, and at the 2026 Bayreuth Festival as Orsini in Rienzi.