Image by George Hutton
Born in 1964 in Dublin, Ireland, Michael's music combines elements of modality and contemporary compositional practices. He founded the vocal ensembles ANÚNA (1987), M’ANAM in 2018 and Systir a year later.
Michael specialises in the composition of music for voices and his extensive output includes a number of pieces that have entered the standard repertoire of choirs and vocal ensembles all over the world. While he is deeply passionate about creating music in the Irish language, his music is expansive, spanning genres, languages and exploring the links between film making and musical creativity.
His music spans a huge range of textures, encompassing larger scale pieces such as “Agnus Dei” (2005) commissioned by Chanticleer, or “Maalaulu” (2021), commissioned by Tampere Vocal Music Festival to the hugely popular piece “Dúlamán” (1995).
In 2017 Michael was the recipient of the University College Dublin Alumni Award in Arts/Humanities and was visiting Eminent Scholar at the Music Department of Florida Atlantic University (2011-2013)… READ ON