Michael Hearst

Michael Marcus Hearst (born December 27, 1972) is a composer, multi-instrumentalist, writer, and producer.

He is best known for his solo albums Songs For Ice Cream Trucks, Songs For Unusual Creatures, Songs For Fearful Flyers, Songs For Unconventional Vehicles and Songs For Extraordinary People, as well as the children's books Unusual Creatures, Extraordinary People, Curious Constructions and Unconventional Vehicles.

He has composed the music for a number of films including The Untold Tales of Armistead Maupin, Chicken People, To Be Takei, Magic Camp, and House of Suh.

The work is a tribute to the late-1980s television series Pee-wee's Playhouse.

For the debut performance, Hearst joined the quartet on stage, performing claviola, theremin, and daxophone, and also conducting a toy instrument orchestra of audience members who took the stage.

Hearst earned a degree in music composition from Virginia Commonwealth University in 1995, where he studied under Dika Newlin.

One Ring Zero was founded in 1997 by Michael Hearst and Joshua Camp.

The groups works are often programmatic and/or collaborative.

They include the album As Smart As We Are, featuring lyrics by Paul Auster, Margaret Atwood, Jonathan Lethem, A.M. Homes, Neil Gaiman, Rick Moody and Dave Eggers.

The book/CD The Recipe Project is a collection of recipes set to music and sung word for word in the musical style suggested by the chefs, including Mario Batali, Chris Cosentino, Andrea Reusing, David Chang, John Besh, Mark Kurlansky, Michael Symon, and Isa Chandra Moskowitz.

Planets is a collection of compositions representing the solar system and beyond.

Hearst says of Planets, "It had been just about 100 years since Holst had composed his song cycle The Planets. It seemed like it was time to musically revisit our solar system and come up with our own song cycle."

In 2007 Hearst composed a collection of songs to reminisce ice cream truck music.

According to Hearst, "I got really frustrated with ice cream trucks passing by and playing the same songs over and over again. I thought somebody needs to write new songs for ice cream trucks. I realized that was going to be me. There was no one else who was going to do it."

Hearst's album Songs For Unusual Creatures is the musical companion to his book Unusual Creatures.

It is a collection of songs inspired by lesser-known animals, and includes works composed for Kronos Quartet, The Microscopic Septet, Margaret Leng Tan, and the League of Electronic Musical Urban Robots.

Songs For Fearful Flyers includes seven long-form instrumental compositions intended to calm nervous travelers.

The album features a spoken word cameo from actress Whoopi Goldberg.

In 2008, Hearst toured with The Magnetic Fields as their support act, reading flash-non-fiction stories, and performing selections from Songs For Newsworthy News.

In April 2009, Hearst performed Terry Riley's Concert in C alongside the Kronos Quartet, Philip Glass, Dave Douglas, Osvaldo Golijov, Morton Subotnick, and many others at Carnegie Hall in New York City.

Hearst began co-writing music with Tanya Donelly in 2010 for her album Swan Song Series, and in October 2011 performed with her at concerts in New York City and Boston, along with Rick Moody, Claudia Gonson, Hannah Marcus, Sam Davol, and Carrie Bradley.

On February 28, 2012, the Kronos Quartet performed the world premiere of Hearst's composition "Secret Word" at Zankel Hall.

In 2014, he co-produced and co-directed Unusual Creatures, a ten episode series for PBS Digital Studios.

Hearst is also a founding member of the eclectic musical group One Ring Zero.

In 2017 Hearst released Songs For Extraordinary People as a companion to his children's book Extraordinary People. The album features songs about Billie Jean King, Lawnchair Larry flight, Ibn Battuta, William Kamkwamba, Jeanne de Clisson, Roy Sullivan, and Marie Curie among others.

Guest vocalists include Taylor Mac, Claudia Gonson, and Tanya Donelly.

In 2017 Hearst returned to VCU to deliver the commencement address to the graduating class of the School of the Arts.

The commencement ceremony took place at the Altria Theater in Richmond, Virginia.

In 2019 Songs For Curious Constructions was released as a companion EP to Hearst's children's book Curious Constructions. The six-song album features compositions about Coney Island's Parachute Jump, Coral Castle, El Pulpo Mecanico, Finca Bellavista, and various Paul Bunyan statues.

Songs For Unconventional Vehicles (2021) is a companion to Hearst's children's book Unconventional Vehicles.

The album features a miniature songs for all 45 entries in the book, which include Bertha (tunnel boring machine), Lockheed XFV, E-Ship 1, LZ 127 Graf Zeppelin, Hyperloop, De Lackner HZ-1 Aerocycle, and the Zamboni Ice resurfacer among others.

Guest vocalists include Syd Straw, Neil Gaiman, and Tanya Donelly among others.

Hearst established Urban Geek Studios and Urban Geek Records, where he has produced, recorded, and worked on post-production for Guided by Voices, Tanya Donelly, Kansas, The Holy Modal Rounders, and Robert Creeley.

Hearst has performed and given lectures and workshops at universities, museums, and cultural centers around the world.

He has also appeared on NPR's Fresh Air, A+E's Breakfast With The Arts, and NBC's The Today Show.

As a writer, Hearst's stories have appeared in literary journals such as McSweeney's Internet Tendency, Post Road, Parenthetical Note, The Lifted Brow, and The Muse Apprentice Guild.

He wrote the non-fiction children's books Unusual Creatures, Extraordinary People, and Curious Constructions.