Michael Schelle

Michael Schelle (pronounced Shelley), born January 22, 1950 in Philadelphia, is an award-winning composer of contemporary concert music.^[1] He is also a conductor, author [3] and teacher. Schelle grew up in Bergen County, New Jersey, where he studied piano and conducting with Walter Schroeder. After receiving a pre-collegiate certificate from the Trinity College of Music in London, he changed direction for a B.A. in theatre and philosophy from Villanova University (PA). During his four years at Villanova, Schelle was the keyboard player in various regional rock bands, and also Composer in Residence for the Villanova Graduate Theatre, scoring productions of Waiting for Godot, Rhinoceros, and other modernist classics directed by Irene Baird and David Rabe.

Returning to music after Villanova, with eyes now opened wide by discovering experimental theatre, the avant garde, and the music of Igor Stravinsky, Bela Bartok, Charles Ives, Frank Zappa, Edgard Varese, Karlheinz Stockhausen and John Cage, Schelle went on to receive composition degrees from the Hartt School of Music (University of Hartford, CT) and the University of Minnesota. Schelle studied composition with Arnold Franchetti, Aaron Copland, Dominick Argento and Eric Stokes.

Schelle's music has been performed by over 250 orchestras and professional chamber ensembles across the US and abroad including the Detroit Symphony, the Minnesota Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony, the Buffalo Philharmonic, and the Cincinnati Symphony, Milwaukee Symphony, Louisville Orchestra, Indianapolis Symphony, Albany (NY) Symphony, Springfield (Mass) Symphony, the Honolulu Symphony Chamber Series, the Kansas City Symphony, the Greenwich (CT) Chorus and Orchestra, the Manhattan Chamber Orchestra, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Cleveland Chamber Symphony . . . . also, Kammerorkester Basel (Switzerland), Czestochowa Philharmonic (Poland), Orquestra Sinfonica Nacional (Costa Rica), Vale of Glamorgan Music Festival (Cardiff, Wales), the 2007 Firenza New Music Festival (Italy), the Koenig Ensemble of London, XTET (Los Angeles), ISIS (Austin, TX), Voices of Change ensemble, the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble, the Urban Quartet (Phoenix) [4], and many others.

Schelle is the author of the 1999 film music book, The Score (Silman-James Press, Los Angeles).[5]

Schelle's 2002 Wright Flight piano concerto (recorded on Albany Records with the Dayton Philharmonic, Andrew Russo, piano) was 'on tour' throughout China in January 2010 for multiple performances with the South Shore Orchestra (Chicago) in Shanghai, Beijing, Ningbo and Hangzhou.

Schelle has received composition grants and awards from the Rockefeller Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York State Arts Council, the New England Foundation for the Arts, the Welsh Arts Council (Cardiff), Arts Midwest, the Great Lakes Arts Alliance, the American Pianists Association, the International Percussive Arts Society, the Barlow Endowment for Music Composition (Utah) and many other organizations.

In 2005/2006, funded by a grant from the American Symphony Orchestra League, Inc. (NYC), Schelle was Composer in Residence for the Albuquerque Youth Symphony organization [6], writing a new work for each of the five AYS orchestras. All five works were premiered in May 2006, at Popejoy Hall on the campus of the University of New Mexico.

2007/2008: by way of a generous Individual Artist Renewal Grant from the Arts Council of Indianapolis, Schelle enjoyed an extended visit to Japan where he worked with legendary avant garde composer Hifumi Shimoyama (b. 1930) in Tokyo, and was active in Hiroshima.

Schelle has been the featured Guest Composer at numerous universities and new music festivals across the US and abroad, and was recently (2009) Composer in Residence at Nagoya Imperial University (Japan). 2010 finds Schelle as Composer in Residence at Aichi Prefectural University of Fine Arts and Music (Japan) for the Decay and Regeneration in the Arts international symposium, hosted by Nagoya Professor Tagiru Fujii, and lectures and performances at the Japan Music League in Tokyo.

A recently commissioned work based on the writing of Vladimir Nabokov was premiered in December 2009 with the Saint Petersburg Chamber Philharmonic in Glinka Hall, Russia, with Julia Kogan, soprano [7]. It was recorded for international commercial release in 2011, distributed by Harmonia Mundi.

New Work for Band: THE END OF THE WORLD (2011) : a CONSORTIUM COMMISSION 2011/2012 for a new work inspired by Nostradamus' doomsday prophecy for "The End of the World" on 12/21/2012, the Mayan Calender, and the March 2011 earthquake/tsunami disaster in Japan - for symphonic wind ensemble co-commissioned by numerous university bands/wind ensembles across the U.S. including: Eastman, Michigan, Indiana, Texas-Austin, Nebraska, New Mexico, Florida, Minnesota, Kansas State, Arizona State, Michigan State, Wisconsin, Missouri, Purdue, Illinois, UNC Greensboro, Louisiana, Virginia Commonwealth, Trinity (TX), Hartt, Ithaca and others. Premiere is scheduled for 9/11/2011, Butler University, Robert Grechesky conducting.

Schelle is Composer in Residence and Founder/Director of the notorious JCFA Composers Orchestra [8] (new music ensemble) at the School of Music, Butler University, Indianapolis, IN, USA.^[2] Schelle's daughter, Katie, is an interior designer with Mitchell Studios in New Haven, CT. His son, Patrick, M.S.W. from NYU, is a social worker in New York City, Brooklyn and The Bronx.

References

• American Symphony Orchestra League / Albuquerque AYS
• American Composer Alliance NYC 1
• American Composers Alliance NYC 2
• Schelle page @ Wind Repertory Project
• Michael Schelle, composer
• Orkestra Projekt
• Guest Composer @ Eastern Michigan University
• St. Mary's College Lectures
• SAI National

1. ^ [1]
2. ^ [2]

External links

• Michael Schelle, composer
• Urban Quartet Phoenix
• Schelle page @ Wind Repertory Project
• School of Music, Butler University

Persondata
Name	Schelle, Michael
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth
Place of birth
Date of death
Place of death