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Michael's
interest in Indian music was sparked by hearing Ravi Shankar and
Alla Rakha perform in Carnegie Hall in the 1970's. He was immediately
struck by the meditative and emotive quality of Indian music,
and . Michael began studying Indian violin in 1978 with Roop Verma,
a disciple of Ali Akbar Khan and Ravi Shankar. In recent years,
he has made many trips to India, to study with Northern Indian
violin maestro Pt. V.G. Jog and others.
Since 1998,
Michael has been performing Indian classical music in the New
York City area and in India. In 2000, he gave a recital at the
Calcutta School of Music, playing Bach, Mozart and Kreisler, an
Indian raga, and Celtic music in the same program, and in 2002,
at the invitation of the U.S. Consulate, he played a concert at
the American Center in Calcutta, dedicated to World Peace. In
January 2004, Michael performed at the Jaipur International Festival
in Rajasthan.
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Enjoy an interview
with
Michael from KSFR
Santa Fe radio
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Michael's
discography includes Vriddhi, Sumanas and Awakening
Peace, recorded in Chennai between 2000 and 2002 with noted
veena player and medical doctor, P. Bharathi, who has pioneered
music for therapy in India. These recordings evoke the specific
benefits of ragas for health. In February 2002, he recorded Celtic
Afternoon, a live concert at Sufi Books in New York City.
Michael is featured on children's CD's produced in Argentina and
Germany by Mariela Chintalo and Tato Gomez, respectively.
He often plays
at the bedside in health care facilities, and performs at proposals,
engagements and weddings.
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| Yoshi's
in Dharamsala |
Teacher Acknowledgement:
Michael began the
study of violin at the age of 9. His teachers of Western violin include
Kazuko Kawamoto, Raphael Bronstein and Dorothy Delay at Columbia College
and the Meadowmount School of Music.
His teachers of
Indian raga have included Acharya Roop Verma, with whom he began, the
late Pandit V.G. Jog, and more recently, Debaprasad and Sulaya Banerjee
of Calcutta.
| Michael's
Western performance spans three decades. He has been concertmaster
of opera orchestras in Manhattan and Brooklyn, co-concertmaster
and quartet member of the NY Festival Orchestra in Brockport. He
is a frequent player of Western Classical, Indian, Celtic and improvisatory
recitals, and a member of the Lifetimes Visions Orchestra, a free-improvisation
group based in Brooklyn. Michael often collaborates with other artists,
including mime, theatre, dance and storytelling. |
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| Michael
with his teacher, Pt. V.G. Jog |
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