Michael Coyle (composer)

Michael Patrick Coyle (born May 2, 1957) is an American composer.

Coyle was born in Easton, Pennsylvania. He studied at the Eastman School of Music, the New England Conservatory of Music, and the University of Minnesota.^[1]

Coyle's work is often performed at concerts produced by the American Composers Forum in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He has held past positions as music director for the Cottage Marionette Theater in New York, and composer-in-residence for the Manhattan Performance Group.^[1] Coyle's works have been featured on television and stage and in art installations in New York City, Madison, Wisconsin, and Minneapolis, Minnesota.^[1]

In addition to music, Michael has an avid interest in science and material experimentation and in the mid-1980s accepted a position as Production Manager for McHugh-Rollins Associates, a properties and special effects design firm in New York City. While in that position he oversaw the special effects production of such large Broadway shows as The Phantom of the Opera and Les Misérables and implemented the effects for Ingmar Bergman's production of Hamlet at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, as well as many other stage productions and films.^[1]

Coyle currently resides in Minneapolis, where, in addition to his work as a composer and arranger, he occasionally performs on the piano and trombone.^[1]

Style

He works in a wide variety of styles, but primarily enjoys writing for instrumental chamber ensembles and orchestra. Most evident in Michael's music is a rich use of both traditional and extended harmony balanced with sections of harmonic ambiguity and atonality. He believes that the combination of tonality and atonality is critical to the appreciation of both. By his own admission, he is obsessed with novel variation in both tone color and texture. He has been recognized as an adept and imaginative orchestrator. He works with both acoustic and electronic instruments in order to have access to as wide a palette of raw sound as possible.^[1]

Recent Works

• DX - for viola, clarinet, trombone, string bass, and percussion [1]
• Intervals I - for small wind ensemble, piano, and percussion [2]
• Intervals II - for piano, violin, and viola [3]
• Small Village Large Tree - for chamber orchestra [4]
• Bruckneurosis - for large orchestra [5]
• The Barking Wizards of Middleview - for chamber orchestra [6]
• Trio for violin, viola, and piano [7]
• Tänzchen für Vier - for violin, clarinet, piano, marimba and vibes - premiered by Zeitgeist, St. Paul, MN, March 22, 2011. Recording not available.

webpage with links to samples

Contact and More Information

American Composers Forum Bio Page[8] Web Page with musical samples: [9]

References

1. ^ ^{a b c d e f} "Member Bio: Michael P. Coyle". American Composers Forum. July 2005. http://www.composersforum.org/member_profile.cfm?oid=5648. Retrieved 2007-07-14. 

Persondata
Name	Coyle, Michael
Alternative names	Michael Patrick Coyle, Mike Coyle, Michael P. Coyle
Short description	Composer, pianist, trombonist
Date of birth	May 2, 1957
Place of birth	Easton, PA
Date of death
Place of death