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SCHELLE is pronounced Shelley : as in FRANKENSTEIN by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
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PROGRAM BIO (for concert programs) LONGER VERSION
MICHAEL SCHELLE (b. 1950 in Philadelphia) was
raised in northern New Jersey and graduated from NHR High School where,
as Captain of the track team, he held the all-state distance records in
the javelin, shot put and hammer for three years running. Now, 30+ years
running as Composer in Residence and
founder / director of the notorious JCA Composers Orchestra (new music ensemble) at Butler University in Indianapolis, he has been 2X nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in Music, a finalist for the
International Humour in Poetry Competition (Paris), a published author (film music book), and restaurant critic.
Michael Schelle's music has been commissioned and / or performed by over 350 orchestras, symphonic bands and professional chamber ensembles across the US and abroad including the Chicago Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra, Detroit Symphony, Buffalo Philharmonic, Milwaukee Symphony, the major orchestras of Pittsburgh, Louisville, Cincinnati, Indianapolis, Portland (OR), Dayton, Nashville, Kansas City, Arizona, Honolulu and Springfield (MA), the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, the Manhattan Chamber Orchestra, Cleveland Chamber Symphony, XTET (Los Angeles), Urban Quartet (Phoenix), Voices of Change (Dallas), the Chicago Ensemble ... and internationally by Warsaw Opera, UMFC Modern Ensemble (Warsaw), Kammerorchester Basel (Switzerland), the St. Petersburg (Russia) Chamber Orchestra, the Kremlin Chamber Orchestra (Moscow), Czestochowa Philharmonic (Poland), the Asian Cultural Symphony Orchestra (NYC), the Brno Philharmonic (Czech Republic), Orquesta Sinfonica Nacional (Costa Rica), Koenig Ensemble of London, the Banff Centre (Canada), CoMET (Tokyo), Firenza New Music Festival (Italy), Beijing (China) Opera House, Corona Guitar Kvartet (Copenhagen, Denmark), Zimbabwe Arts Festival, and the Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) Symphonic Wind Ensemble.
He has received composition prizes, grants and awards from over 30 prestigious national arts organizations including the Rockefeller Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, American Symphony Orchestra League (NYC), American Pianists Association, National Band Association (2012 Revelli Composition Prize), the Welsh Arts Council (Cardiff), the Barlow Endowment for Music Composition, the New England Foundation for the Arts, the New York State Arts Council, Arts Midwest, the Great Lakes Arts Alliance, Pi Kappa Lambda Board of Regents 2020 commission, and ArtsFest 2015. He has held extended composition residencies at dozens of leading American universities, conservatories and new music festivals, and at Spoleto USA, Wolf Trap, the MacDowell Colony (NH), and many extended residencies abroad - including the Czech Republic, Austria, Amsterdam, Costa Rica, Poland (Warsaw and Krakow, 2016, 2019), Japan (X3 - Tokyo, Nagoya, Hiroshima) and China. Schelle holds degrees from Villanova University (theatre), the Hartt School of Music (CT), the Trinity College of Music, London, UK, (diploma), and a Ph.D. from University of Minnesota. His composition teachers have included Aaron Copland, Arnold Franchetti, Paul Fetler and Dominick Argento. During the summers of 1998 – 2005, Schelle lived in Los Angeles, writing a film music book (The Score, published in 2000 by Silman-James Press, LA, and translated / published in Korea in 2013) - and working on the original scores for such Hollywood blockbusters (?) as The Mummy, G Men from Hell and Bikini Prison. Visit: www.schellemusic.com
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PROGRAM BIO (for concert programs) SHORTER VERSION (300 words)
MICHAEL SCHELLE (b. 1950 in Philadelphia)
Michael Schelle's music has been commissioned and / or performed by over 350 orchestras, symphonic bands and professional chamber ensembles across the US and abroad includingthe Chicago Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra, Detroit Symphony, Buffalo Philharmonic,Milwaukee Symphony, Louisville Orchestra, Cincinnati Symphony, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Manhattan Chamber Orchestra, Cleveland Chamber Symphony, XTET (Los Angeles), Urban Quartet (Phoenix), Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble, and the “Tokyo to New York” new music series.
Recent international performances have included Kammerorchester Basel (Switzerland), Warsaw Chamber Opera, St. Petersburg Philharmonic, Kremlin Chamber Orchestra, Czestochowa Philharmonic (Poland), Orquesta Sinfonica Nacional (Costa Rica), Brno Philharmonic (Czech Republic), Koenig Ensemble of London, Firenza New Music Festival (Italy), Beijing Opera House, Corona Guitar Kvartet (Copenhagen, Denmark), 2019 Zimbabwe Arts Festival and the Kuala Lumpur Symphonic Wind Ensemble.
He has received grants, awards and fellowships from over 30 arts organizations including the Rockefeller Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, American Symphony Orchestra League (NYC), American Pianists Association,National Band Association, Welsh Arts Council (Cardiff),New England Foundation for the Arts, New York State Arts Council, Great Lakes Arts Alliance, the Arts Council of Indianapolis, and the Pi Kappa Lambda National Board of Regents. He has held extended residencies at dozens of American universities and new music festivals, at Spoleto USA, Wolf Trap, the MacDowell Colony (NH), and with universities and ensembles in Costa Rica, Poland (Warsaw and Kraków), Japan (Tokyo, Nagoya, Hiroshima) and China (Beijing, Ningbo, Hangzhou). Schelle holds degrees from Villanova University, the Hartt School (CT),Trinity College of Music, London (diploma), and a PhD from the University ofMinnesota. His composition teachers have included Aaron Copland, Arnold Franchetti and Dominick Argento. Schelle is Artist in Residence at the School of Music, Jordan College of the Arts, Butler University, Indianapolis. Visit: http://www.schellemusic.com/1.html
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PROGRAM BIO (for concert programs) ALTERNATIVE SHORTER VERSION
MICHAEL SCHELLE (b. 1950 in Philadelphia) was raised in northern New Jersey and graduated from NHR High School where, as Captain of the track team, he held the all-state distance records in the javelin, shot put and hammer for three years running. Now, 30+ years running as Composer in Residence at Butler University, his music has been commissioned and / or performed by over 350 orchestras, symphonic bands and professional chamber ensembles across the US and abroad, including the Chicago Symphony, the Minnesota Orchestra, the Detroit Symphony, the major orchestras of Pittsburgh, Buffalo, Louisville, Cincinnati, Kansas City and Cleveland, the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, the Manhattan Chamber Orchestra, Urban Elektra (Phoenix), ISIS (Dallas) and XTET (Los Angeles). Recent international performances of his music have included Kammerorchester Basel (Switzerland), the St. Petersburg (Russia) Chamber Orchestra, the Kremlin Chamber Orchestra (Moscow), the Czestochowa Philharmonic (Poland), Warsaw (Poland) Chamber Opera, Orquesta Sinfonica Nacional (Costa Rica), the Koenig Ensemble of London, the Banff Centre (Canada), the Beijing Opera House, CoMET (Tokyo), the Firenza New Music Festival (Italy), the Corona Guitar Kvartet (Copenhagen, Denmark), Zimbabwe ArtsFest, and the Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) Symphonic Wind Ensemble. He has received composition grants and awards from over 30 prestigious arts organizations including the Rockefeller Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, American Symphony Orchestra League (NYC), National Band Association (2012 Revelli Composition Prize), the Barlow Foundation, New York State Arts Council, Great Lakes Arts Alliance, New England Arts Foundation, the Welsh Arts Council (Cardiff), the American Pianists Association, Pi Kappa Lambda Board of Regents and the Indiana Arts Commission, and has held extended composition residencies at dozens of leading American universities and new music festivals, Spoleto USA, Wolf Trap, the MacDowell Colony (NH), and in Poland, China and Japan, including the Kraków Academy of Music, Chopin University (Warsaw), Aichi University of the Arts and Nagoya Imperial University. For his alter ego, during the summers of 1998 – 2003, Schelle lived in Los Angeles, writing a film music book (The Score, published in 2000 by Silman-James Press, LA, and translated / published in Korea in 2013) - and working on the original scores for such Hollywood blockbusters (?) as The Mummy, G Men from Hell and Bikini Prison.
Visit: www.schellemusic.com
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MINIMALISM BIO
Michael Schelle grew up in New Jersey and has never written a woodwind quartet.
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FULL BIOGRAPHY
MICHAEL SCHELLE (b. 1950 in Philadelphia) : raised in Bergen County, northern New Jersey, Schelle graduated from Northern Highlands Regional High School where, as Captain of the track team, he held the all-state distance records in javelin, shot put and hammer for three years running. Now 30 years running as Composer in Residence at Butler University's School of Music in Indianapolis, he has been 2X a Pulitzer Prize nominee, recipient of the Rockefeller Foundation Composition Prize, a finalist for the International Humour in Poetry Competition (Paris), a published author (film music book) and restaurant critic (Indianapolis).
Schelle's music has been commissioned and/or performed by over 350 orchestras, wind bands and professional chamber ensembles across the US and abroad including the Chicago Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra, Detroit Symphony, Milwaukee Symphony, Buffalo Philharmonic, Cincinnati Symphony, Pittsburgh Symphony, Louisville Orchestra, Indianapolis Symphony, Kansas City Symphony, Nashville Symphony, Greenwich (CT) Orchestra and Chorus, Honolulu Symphony, Alabama Symphony, Dayton Philharmonic, Missouri Symphony, the District 99 Symphony Orchestra (Chicago), the Asian Cultural Symphony Orchestra (NYC), the New York Festival Orchestra, the principal orchestras of Albany (NY), Tulsa, Baton Rouge, Birmingham, North Carolina, Springfield (Mass), New Jersey, New Mexico, Portland (OR), Aberdeen, Arizona, Knoxville, Evansville, Kalamazoo, Newark-Granville (OH), Fort Collins (CO), Fort Smith (AR) and Fort Wayne (IN); the Manhattan Chamber Orchestra, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Cleveland Chamber Symphony, New World Chamber Orchestra, Orkestra Projekt, Columbus Pro Musica, Chamber Orchestra of Sarasota, XTET (Los Angeles), Voices of Change (Dallas), SONOR (San Diego), ISIS New Music Ensemble (Austin), Urban Quartet of Phoenix, AZ, Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble, Eastman School of Music New Music Group and the 2019 New Hampshire Music Festival. His music for symphonic winds has been commissioned and/or performed by dozens of the most prestigious wind ensembles across the U.S. including Eastman, University of Texas-Austin, University of Michigan, Arizona State University, Indiana University, Kansas State, Michigan State, University of Nebraska, Ithaca, University of New Mexico, the Ohio State University, the Hartt School, Butler University, Oklahoma, Florida, UCONN, IPFW, various SUNY wind ensmebles, USC, LSU, VCU, etc.
Recent critically-acclaimed international performances of Schelle's music have included Kammerorchester Basel (Switzerland), the Kremlin Chamber Orchestra (Moscow), the St. Petersburg (Russia) Chamber Philharmonic, Czestochowa Philharmonic (Poland), the Brno Philharmonic (Czech Republic), Orquesta Sinfonica Nacional (Costa Rica), Koenig Ensemble of London, Vale of Glamorgan Music Festival (Cardiff, Wales), Banff Centre for the Arts (Canada), CoMET (Contemporary Music Ensemble of Tokyo), Firenza International Music Festival (Italy), Kuala Lumpur Performing Arts Center Symphonic Wind Ensemble, the 2019 EU premiere production of The End of Al Capone (opera) in Warsaw, Poland (May 2019), Corona Guitar Kvartet (Copenhagen, Denmark)... and performances in Ningbo, Shanghai, Hangzhou, Hiroshima, Nagoya, Beijing, Brussels, Berlin, Bombay, Budapest, Bucharest, Vienna, Prague, Amsterdam and Zimbabwe.
Schelle has received composition grants and awards from many prestigious arts organizations including the NEA (National Endowment for the Arts), the Rockefeller Foundation (NYC), American Symphony Orchestra League (NYC), League of American Orchestras "Music Alive" program, Organization of American States (OAS), Welsh Arts Council (Cardiff, Wales UK), International Percussive Arts Society, the 2012 National Band Association's William D. Revelli Memorial Composition Prize, American Pianists Association, Barlow Endowment for Music Composition (UT), Beethoven 250 Festival, Great Lakes Arts Alliance, New England Foundation for the Arts, Pennsylvania Arts Commission, Indiana Arts Commission, New York State Arts Council, Arts Midwest, Arts Council of Indianapolis (x2), ArtsFest 2015, the Pi Kappa Lambda Board of Regents national commission (2020), NPR, ASCAP and BMI.
Schelle has held numerous extended composition residencies in the USA including 2X at the MacDowell Colony (New Hampshire), Spoleto USA Festival (Charleston, SC), Wolf Trap Center for the Performing Arts (Virginia), ICAM (Institute of Contemporary American Music), the Albuquerque Youth Symphony Program and the Finger Lakes Music Festival (upstate NY). He has been the featured Guest Composer for residencies and ALL-SCHELLEMUSIK programs (chamber groups, orchestras and symphonic wind ensembles), masterclasses and lectures at many institutions across the US including the University of Massachusetts, University of Kansas, University of Oklahoma, Indiana University, Sam Houston State University, Arizona State University, Portland (Maine) Conservatory of Music, The Catholic University of America (Washington D.C.), Louisiana State University, Washington State University, The Ohio State University, California Lutheran University, Eastern Michigan University, Syracuse University, University of Notre Dame, Bowling Green State University, Trinity University (San Antonio, TX), University of Wisconsin-Madison, University of New Mexico, Carnegie Mellon University, Kent State University, Northern State University (South Dakota), Southern Illinois University, Capital University, Tarleton University (TX), Old Dominion University, University of Louisiana-Lafayette, CCM (Cincinnati), USC, UCLA, NYU, Pacific University (OR), various SUNYs (Buffalo, Albany, Binghamton, Purchase, etc.).
Recent international Guest Composer / visiting professor residencies have included: The Kraków Academy of Music (Poland) and the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music (Warsaw, Poland) 2016, 2019; Nagoya Imperial Graduate University, Japan (2009, 2013), Aichi University of the Arts (Yazako, Nagakute, Japan: 2010, 2013), The People's Power Grid University School of Music (Beijing, China, 2010), and the National University of San Jose / Orquesta Sinfonica Nacional (Costa Rica).
Schelle holds degrees from Villanova University (theatre), the Hartt School of Music / University of Hartford, Trinity College of Music, London, UK, (diploma) and a Ph.D. from University of Minnesota. His composition teachers have included Aaron Copland, Arnold Franchetti (student of Richard Strauss in 1940's Munich), Eric Stokes, Paul Fetler (student of Hindemith, Boris Blacher) and Dominick Argento. Schelle's works are published by MMB Keiser Classical / Hal Leonard, Indiana University Press, European American Music, American Composers Edition (NYC) and commercially recorded by CRS (Philadelphia), Innova (Boston), Albany Records (NYC/London) and Ablaze Records. During the summers of 1998 – 2005, Schelle lived in the Los Angeles area, writing a film music book (The Score,
published in 2000 by Silman-James Press, LA, and published (in Korea)
in 2013) - and working on the original scores for such Hollywood
blockbusters (?) as The Mummy, G Men from Hell and Bikini Prison.
Visit: www.schellemusic.com
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with my first composition teachers
Aaron Copland and Arnold Franchetti
Copland's house on the Hudson River
Fishkill, NY - 1977
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BIO ETC.
- January 2010 : Schelle was in CHINA with the South Shore Orchestra (Chicago) for eight concerts in Beijing, Shanghai, Hangzhou, Zhoushan and Ningbo. Sponsored by the Confucious International Center, Schelle's 2002 Piano Concerto, Wright Flight was featured on each concert, MIHO SASAKI, piano. The programs also included music by Copland, Paganini, Strauss, and two Chinese composers.
- Schelle was named Distinguished Composer of the Year by the Music Teachers National Association during the MTNA national conference in Wichita, KS for his large chamber work Musica Magnetizarre (commissioned by Indiana University)
- Had a date with CHER : New York City, January 1996
- December 2001 : The Indianapolis Star selected the Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra's performance of Michael Schelle's 3-mvmt violin concerto, Play Us Chastity on Your Violin (featuring Czech superstar violinist Livru Prunaru) as the No. 1 Classical Music Event of 2001 in the City of Indianapolis
- John Cage started a standing ovation for Schelle's chamber piece, HOWL (1986) after a performance at the University of Kansas in 1988. HOWL was also presented with guest participant Allen Ginsberg in 1991, with the poet performing on his treasured concertina squeeze box (a gift from Bob Dylan) reading a 'new part' specifically written by Schelle for the occasion.
- As an undergraduate at Villanova University, Michael Schelle studied briefly with iconic San Francisco Beat poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti and spent a long night in the Philadelphia city lockup following an underage drinking raid on Kelly's Bar
- Three extended "Composer in Residence" appointments in JAPAN (all-schellekammermusik concerts, lectures, composition masterclasses, etc.): Aichi Prefectural University of Music and Fine Arts, and Nagoya Imperial Graduate University, 2009, 2011, 2013 ... and two guest composer residencies at Kraków Academy of Music and Frederick Chopin University of Music (Warsaw, Poland), 2016, 2019
- Conductors of Michael Schelle's orchestral music have included: Sir Neville Marriner, Keith Lockhart, Jesus Lopez-Cobos, Dennis Russell Davies, Maxiamo Valdes, Michael Gielen, Paul
Polivnick, Tsung Yeh, William McGlaughlin, John Nelson, Edvard Tchivzhel, Neal Gittleman, John Jeter and Oleg Kovalenko.
- In one of the most surreal adventures of his career, Schelle was certain they had called the wrong phone number when Lawrence Central High School (IN) "Spirit of Central" Marching Band called and asked permission to arrange excerpts from his orchestral works, Crash-out, Samurai, The Last Ride and Detour to Nowhere for their eleven-minute 2003 half-time program. Creating an elaborate, sophisticated and complicated show, the 175-member LCHS
marching band went on to place very high in regional, state and
national competitions (Bands of America), including the coveted "First Place : "Best Music" in the ISSMA BOA National Invitationals !!
- Schelle has 3 Maine Coon cats, 3 shelter/rescue
cats, two thirtysomething kids (in CT and NYC) . . .
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- Michael Schelle : WIKIPEDIA
- Michael Schelle : PYTHEAS CENTER FOR CONTEMPORARY MUSIC
- Michael Schelle : THE WIND ENSEMBLE REPERTORY PROJECT
- Michael Schelle : COMPOSERS CIRCLE
- Michael Schelle : COMPOSERS CIRCLE
- Michael Schelle : INTERVIEW : Video interview with Interplay host Michael Shapiro (January 2021)
- Michael Schelle : INTERVIEW : Video interview with Studio HFL host Larry Powell (December 2020)
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Bergen County, New Jersey : late 1950s
Building (and operating) an electric chair in the backyard
THE MIGHTY V8 FORD STATION WAGON