Hi, I'm Michael

I’ve always been fascinated by the way music can make us feel something before we fully understand why. A melody, a chord, a sound heard from across a room—sometimes those things stay with us for years. That sense of connection is at the heart of why I write music.

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I came to composing through a life spent in and around ensembles. I grew up believing deeply in the communal experience of making music: people with different backgrounds, personalities, and abilities coming together to create something none of them could make alone. That idea has shaped me not only as a musician, but as a person.

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For much of my career, I was a public-school band director. Those years taught me lessons I still carry into everything I do—about patience, communication, leadership, and the responsibility we have to the people who trust us with their creativity. At Joe E. Newsome High School in Florida, I had the privilege of working alongside remarkable students, families, and colleagues. Together, we experienced things I never could have imagined when I first stepped into a band room: performing in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, competing nationally through Bands of America and Winterguard International, and earning some wonderful recognition along the way. But what I remember most clearly are the rehearsals, the bus rides, the conversations, and watching young people discover that they were capable of more than they thought.

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Eventually, composing and arranging grew from something I did alongside teaching into the center of my professional life. Today, I write music for concert bands, orchestras, chamber ensembles, marching bands, and drum corps. My concert music is published by Alfred Music, Carl Fischer Music, F.J.H. Music, Excelcia Music, Murphy Music, R.W.S. Music, and Tapspace, and it has taken me to places I never expected—from the Midwest Clinic in Chicago to the Jeju Composition Competition for Wind Ensemble in South Korea. There is still something wonderfully surreal about hearing musicians I’ve never met, sometimes thousands of miles away, bring their own humanity to notes that once existed only in my head.

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The pageantry arts have been another enormous part of my life. I work with dozens of ensembles each year through Synced Up Designs and serve as a brass arranger for the Colts, Cincinnati Tradition, and Music City Drum and Bugle Corps. I’ve been fortunate to contribute to programs that have appeared at DCI Finals, won championships, and been performed everywhere from high-school stadiums to the Super Bowl. I love this medium because it sits at the intersection of so many things I care about: music, theater, storytelling, collaboration, education, and the challenge of creating an emotional experience for an audience in real time.

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For all the different forms my work takes, I don’t think of myself as someone who simply writes notes. I’m a storyteller. Sometimes the story is joyful, sometimes strange, sometimes deeply serious, and sometimes it exists simply because making something fun and beautiful is worthwhile. I’m interested in music that communicates—that welcomes people in rather than asking them to admire it from a distance.

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Teaching shaped that philosophy, and education remains an important part of who I am. I earned my Bachelor of Music Education from Syracuse University and my Master of Music in Instrumental Conducting from the University of Florida. I’m also a member of the National Association for Music Education, the National Band Association, the World Association for Symphonic Bands and Ensembles, and Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia. More important than any credential, though, are the teachers, colleagues, students, performers, and friends who have continually challenged the way I listen, think, and create.

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Away from music, I’m happiest when life gets a little quieter. I love traveling, photography, playing golf, discovering a great restaurant, and experiencing places that remind me how large and varied the world really is. Most of those adventures are shared with my wife and closest companion, Vivian, who has been beside me through the unpredictable life that comes with making a career out of creativity.

I’ve been fortunate to make music in a lot of places and with a lot of wonderful people. But the older I get, the less interested I am in collecting accomplishments and the more interested I am in making work that means something—to the musicians performing it, to the people experiencing it, and to me.

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That, more than anything, is what keeps me writing.