Michael Schelle
Michael Schelle is an award-winning composer of contemporary
concert music as well as a conductor, author and teacher. His works have been performed throughout the United States
as well as all over the world by renowned orchestras and chamber ensembles.
Schelle was born in Philadelphia
and grew up in Bergen County,
New Jersey, where he studied
piano and conducting with Walter Schroeder.
After receiving a pre-collegiate certificate (diploma) from the Trinity
College of Music in London, he changed direction
for a B.A. in theatre and philosophy from Villanova University. During his career at Villanova he was the
keyboard player for various regional rock bands and Composer-in-Residence for
the Villanova Graduate Theatre, scoring productions of Waiting for Godot, Rhinoceros
and other modernist classics with directors such as Irene Baird and David
Rabe. The influences and experiences at
Villanova led him to the Hartt School of Music (now The Hartt School) where he earned a degree in composition and to
the University of
Minnesota for his Ph.D.
Michael Schelle's music has been performed by over 200
orchestras and chamber ensembles across the United States and abroad. He has received composition grants from many
prestigious arts organizations including the National Endowment for the Arts,
the Rockefeller Foundation and the Welsh Arts Council to name a few. He has held featured International Guest
Composer residencies including Nagoya Imperial University,
Japan in 2009 and in Aichi
Prefectural University of Fine Arts and Music, Yazako, Japan
in 2010. His composition residencies in
the United States include: Spoleto USA Festival (Charleston, South Carolina),
ICAM (Institute of Contemporary American Music, Connecticut), Wolf Trap Center
for the Performing Arts (Virginia) and Manhattan Chamber Orchestra, New York
City (7 times).
His other careers have taken him to Hollywood where he worked with film composers
and ghost writers on low-budget film scores.
He has written and published a 450-page film music book, The Score, (Silman-James Press, L.A., 2000) and is also
the featured composer in the award-winning/critically acclaimed symphonic
documentary, Extreme Orchestra!: Opening
Night.
Among the many accolades for Michael Schelle are two
Pulitzer Prize nominations, a finalist for the International Humour in Poetry
Competition (Paris), Distinguished Composer of the Year by the Music Teachers
National Association for his 3-movement chamber work Musica Magnetizarre, and the BMI & ASCAP Young Composers Prizes.
A recently commissioned work based on the writing of
Vladimir Nabokov was premiered in December 2009 with the Saint Petersburg
Chamber Philharmonic in Glinka Hall,
Russia. It was recorded for international commercial
release in 2010 and distributed by Harmonia
Mundi. 2011 will include international performances of Schelle's orchestral
music in Amsterdam, Greece,
Italy and Japan.
Schelle is Composer-in-Residence and Founder/Director of the
JCFA composers Orchestra at the School
of Music, Butler
University, Indianapolis, Indiana.
For a more complete biography and information about Michael
Schelle please visit his website: http://schellemusic.com/2.html