Michael Schelle

Bio:

MICHAEL SCHELLE (b. 1950, Philadelphia) Schelle’s works have been commissioned and performed by many orchestras including the Detroit Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra, Buffalo Philharmonic, the major orchestras of Cleveland, Chicago (Grant Park Summer Series), Milwaukee, Cincinnati, Baltimore, Kansas City, Louisville, Tulsa, Knoxville, Evansville, Birmingham, Indianapolis, Springfield (MA), Dayton, Albany, Albuquerque, New Mexico, Fort Wayne, Baton Rouge, Arkansas, Columbus Pro Musica, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Manhattan Chamber Orchestra, New World Chamber Orchestra, Indiana Opera Theatre, Greenwich (CT) Orchestra/Chorus, Western Wind Ensemble (Seattle), Group for New Music (Lincoln Center, NYC), ISIS (Dallas), XTET (Los Angeles), Voices of Change (Austin) and Pittsburgh new music ensembles – and many other orchestras, university symphonic bands/wind ensembles, professional chamber ensembles, and soloists. International performances of Schelle’s orchestral works have included Kammerorchester Basel (Switzerland), the Czestochowa Philharmonic (Poland), Orquesta Sinfonica Nacional (Costa Rica), the Honolulu Symphony New Music Series, and the Koenig Ensemble of London. During summer 2000, Schelle conducted multiple performances of his work Guttersnipe (for large symphonic wind ensemble) across Eastern Europe including performances in Prague, Budapest, Vienna, and Schladming (Austria). Real conductors of his works have included Neville Marriner, Jesus Lopez-Cobos, Bill McGlaughlin, Keith Lockhart, Julius Hegyi, John Nelson, Edvard Tchivzhel, Tsung Yeh, Maxiamo Valdes, John Jeter, Kirk Trevor, Stanley DeRusha, Neal Gittleman, Paul Polivnick, Gundaris Pone, and Oleg Kovalenko. Schelle has received composition grants, awards and commissions from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Rockefeller Foundation (NYC), the Welsh Arts Council (Cardiff, U.K.), the International Percussive Arts Society (USA), American Pianists Association (the required etude for 12 semi-finalists ? 1996 competition), the Barlow Endowment for Music Composition (Utah), Arts Midwest, Meet The Composer, Inc., Indiana Arts Commission (3 master artist fellowships), Arts Council of Indianapolis, Mid-American Conference CBDNA, Great Lakes Arts Alliance, New England Foundation for the Arts, Indiana State Orchestra Consortium, NPR, BMI, and ASCAP. Schelle’s composition awards include First Prize in the 1987 Inter-American Competition for New Orchestral Works (South America), First Prize in the first (1985) “Music in the Mountains” National Competition for New Orchestral Works (NY), and twice a Pulitzer Prize nominee–1988 for Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra and 1994 for Spirits. In 1990 he was named “Distinguished Composer of the Year” by the Music Teachers National Association and, on 31 December 2001, the Indianapolis Star newspaper selected the December 5th performance of Schelle’s chamber violin concerto, Play Us Chastity on Your Violin with Romanian violin superstar Liviu Prunaru and the composer conducting as the “No. 1 Classical Music Event of 2001 in the City of Indianapolis.” Schelle is a frequent guest composer at colleges and new music festivals across the country, including recent extended residencies and “All Schelle ” concerts at Washington State, University of Southern California, Louisiana State, Illinois Wesleyan, University of Kansas, Sam Houston State, Kent State, Capital, Millikin, Bowdoin College (Maine), University of Massachusetts, and Saint Mary’s College. He has been composer in residence at the Spoleto LEA Festival (Charleston, SC), the Wolf Trap Center for the Performing Arts (VA) and twice at the MacDowell Artists Colony (NH). His degrees are from Villanova University (theatre), Butler, the Hartt School of Music, University of Hartford (CT), and a PhD from the University of Minnesota. His teachers have included Arnold Franchetti, Dominick Argento, and Aaron Copland. His works are published by MMB Music (St. Louis), European American Music, Indiana University Press, Moon of Hope Press (choral), and American Composers Edition. During the summers of 1994 – 1999, Schelle lived in the Los Angeles area working with his alter-ego ‘part-time’ creative passion – movie music- composing/’ghost-writing’ on numerous incredibly low-budget B-film scores including Bikini Prison, and G-Men from Hell. Schelle’s 450-page film music book, The Score (Silman-James Press, Los Angeles) released internationally in October 1999.

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