Michael Fleming (b. 1993) is a composer and multi-instrumentalist from Southern California, United States. He is a graduate of the University of Oregon’s School of Music and Dance with a M.M. degree in music composition where he studied privately with David Crumb and Robert Kyr. Prior to this, he completed his B.M. studies at Chapman University’s College of Performing Arts, studying with Drs. Sean Heim, Jeffrey Holmes, Vera Ivanova, Dominique Schafer, and Chinary Ung. He has participated in masterclasses and seminars with artists such as Martin Bresnick, Payton MacDonald, Shawn Mativetsky, Vancouver Intercultural Orchestra, Sinakhoe (The Society of Korean New Music), Chinary Ung, Farshid Samandari, Da Capo Chamber Players and more. Much of his recent work explores and integrates timbres and musical traditions from around the world, creating an illuminating intercultural dialogue through chamber music. As a multi-instrumentalist, he has an avid interest in collaborating and composing new music with musicians and composers of various backgrounds.

Whirly Tube

More in depth bio –

Michael Fleming is a composer, multi-instrumentalist, and educator based in Orange County, California. His parents introduced violin and piano to his life at the young age of 5. For a few summers in his early life, he  participated in Suzuki violin music camps in Aspen, Colorado and Sweden,  which fostered a greater interest in practicing, collaborating, and playing music with others. As a young boy with his family ,he traveled on long life-changing trips during the summers. Michael furthered his studies in violin and piano by attending the Orange County High School of the Arts for middle school and high school in the Instrumental Music Conservatory. After the academic classes he learned about intervals, chamber music performance and the vast repertoire of chamber music and orchestral music from Daniel Oguri and Christopher Russell. During his sophomore year of high school he was asked to compose the score and incidental music to Thornton Wilder’s “Our Town”,  at Vanguard University and directed by Susan Berkompas. He played each show live for multiple weeks and was later awarded the Meritorious Achievement by the Kennedy Performing Arts Center in Washington D.C. Soon after the award was given he recorded an album of the incidental piano music. That very next year he composed the score for the American Theater Company’s production of the “Hiding Place” by Tim Gregory. In addition to composing the score, he acted in the play. 

A huge part of Michael’s compositional development was participating in Boston Conservatory’s Composition Intensive. He was assigned and guided to compose four pieces inspired by different attractions throughout Boston, Massachusetts. Composers Dalit Warshaw and Andy Vores were incredible professors and mentors who helped instill a sense of curiosity and openness to accessing our creative and musical potential. 

Michael had the honor of being chosen to compose the final graduation celebration anthem for Orange County High School of the Art’s class of 2012. 

He began his formal  studies of music composition B.M. studies at Chapman University’s College of Performing Arts, studying with Drs. Sean Heim, Jeffrey Holmes, Vera Ivanova, Dominique Schafer, and Chinary Ung. He also further studied violin and piano with William Fitzpatrcick and Christopher Brennan. Through his studies he channeled his  musical curiosities by playing a variety of chamber music pieces, especially ones written in the past 50 years. Highlights include “Black Angels” by George Crumb, “Gobi Gloria” by Lei Liang, “Andean Walkabout” by Gabriela Lena Frank and “String Quartet No. 11 ‘Jaiburu Dreaming’” by Peter Sculthorpe, “Workers Union” by Louis Andreissen, “Varied Trio” by Lou Harrison, and “Sinking of the Titanic” by Gavin Breyers.  

In 2014, Michael participated in the  incredible composition intensive Composing in the Wilderness, where he and 9 other composers hiked through Denali National Park, composed a new piece in a cabin in Yukon-Charley Preserve based on the experience, then heard the premiere as past of the Fairbanks Summer Arts Festival. It was an incredible life changing experience that taught Michael the human imagination and musical creativity  is limitless and ever transforming. 

During a lesson Michael had his third year at Chapman University  with Dr. Sean Heim, he was introduced  to the music of Shakti and John McLaughlin, an Indian and Jazz fusion band from the 70s which changed the trajectory of his studies for the rest of his life. He almost instantly started studying Indian classical music and studied tabla with percussionist and tabla disciple of the Lucknow Gharana, Justin DeHart. Those lessons were taught through oral tradition using bols and taals, theka and qaidas, expanding my sense of rhythm, meter, motive, timbre, and musical and cultural context. 

After he received his B.M. in Music Composition from Chapman University, he was invited by his mentors Dr. Sean Heim and Chinary Ung to participate in the Nirmita Composers Institute in Siem Reap, Cambodia, where he learned about Pinpeat and Mohori music of the Khmer people and taught Southeast Asian composers about 20th and 21st century compositional techniques. It was an eye-opening musical dialogue that contributed to his deep appreciation for music making and connection amongst people. 

Michael then began to pursue his Masters of Music at the University of Oregon and studied with Drs. Robert Kyr and David Crumb. He also continued his piano studies and worked under the tutelage of Dr. David Riley.  Michael was an active performer of newly composed music by the composition students on not only the violin but hammered dulcimer, steel tongue drum, piano, celeste, and whirly tubes. He also collaborated with renowned vocalist Esteli Gomez on a variety of his works and others for the Music Today Festival in Oregon, 2017 and 2018. 

The next summer he dove deeper into tabla composition by participating in Shastra’s Composing for Indian Rhythm Composition Intensive, where he composed a concerto-like work for Shawn Mativetsky of the Benares Gharana in tabla and the William Patterson University Percussion Quartet. Payton MacDonald and Shawn Mativetsky devised a notation system for the tabla which focuses on blending the notated tradition of the West with the oral tradition of Indian Classical Music so musicians of either tradition can read and understand the musical material. This system proved to be helpful when composing his thesis Cosmic Lotus, Rising, at the end of his Master’s degree. 

At the University of Oregon, Michael was also an active member and composer of the Pacific Rim Gamelan Ensemble,  a contemporary gamelan ensemble dedicated to new music for Javanese and Indonesian Gamelan.  Led by Robert Kyr, a tablature system was used to notate the material for the various instruments throughout the ensemble. Writing colotomic structures and creating material using limited instruments and pitches were incredible skills acquired when writing for that ensemble. 

The summer of 2018, he was accepted to the Oregon Bach Festival Composer Symposium at the University of Oregon.  There, he premiered new works in the American Creator’s Ensemble, Wild Night Concert Series, and Performer’s Showcase. As a composer, Michael  was  invited to write a new work  for the Oregon Wind Ensemble in collaboration with Sinkahoe (the Korean Society for New Music) for flute, clarinet, bassoon, haegeum and cello.  This intercultural concert incorporated Western-classical ensembles with traditional Korean styles and instruments (pansori, gugak and haegeum). 

At University of Oregon, he composed his thesis piece “Cosmic Lotus, Rising” for tabla and chamber orchestra, featuring soloist Doug Scheurell of the Lucknow Gharana, student of Swapan Chauduri. As a disciple of the tradition he was not comfortable with reading Western notation but the fused notation system from the Shastra workshop was extremely helpful in articulating the ideas.  It was an amazing experience attempting to blend playing styles, forms, frameworks and traditions to create a unique and distinct soundscape and story. It proved to be just the beginning stages to integrating Indian Classical music and music throughout the world into my compositions. There is so much to understand and explore!

To continue his pursuits of new and intercultural music,  Michael attended the Vancouver Inter-Cultural Orchestra Summer Academy in Vancouver, British Columbia.  In two weeks, they were able to work in close proximity with the Roadrunner Trio (Klezmer trio from Amsterdam, Holland) and Chinese, Vietnamese, and Persian composers and instrumentalists on pipa, sheng, dizi, guzheng, erhu, dan bao, accordion, santur, and kamanche. He worked closely with composer Farshid Samandari to compose a piece for flute, clarinet, accordion, santur, and cello and it premiered at the end of the academy alongside arrangements of folk songs he performed with guzheng and santur players. 

In an effort to become more in touch with his heritage, he recently started studying Klezmer music and plans to integrate the styles and techniques into his improvisations and compositions. At home in Orange County, he is a guest artist, arranger and collaborator for local singer/songwriters, and a private violin, piano, and composition teacher at FreshStart Music Academy

. Michael deeply enjoys creating music, and hopes  to continue his musical journey to educate himself and his craft and  empower others to learn all styles of music through teaching and performance. Much of his recent work explores and integrates timbres and musical traditions from around the world, creating an illuminating intercultural dialogue through chamber music. As a multi-instrumentalist, he has an avid interest in collaborating and composing new music with musicians and composers of various backgrounds.