Michael Schelle

Michael Schelle (pronounced Shelley), born January 22, 1950, in Philadelphia, is a composer of contemporary concert music.

He is also a performer, conductor, author, and teacher.

Schelle grew up in Bergen County, in northern 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, Béla Bartók, Charles Ives, Frank Zappa, Edgard Varese, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Krzysztof Penderecki and John Cage, Schelle went on to receive graduate composition degrees from the Hartt School of Music (Connecticut) and the University of Minnesota.

Schelle studied composition with Arnold Franchetti, Aaron Copland, Paul Fetler, and Dominick Argento.

Schelle's music has been commissioned and / or performed by over 350 orchestras, symphonic bands and professional chamber ensembles across the US and abroad including the Detroit Symphony, the Minnesota Orchestra, Chicago Symphony, Buffalo Philharmonic, Cincinnati Symphony, Milwaukee Symphony, Louisville Orchestra, Indianapolis Symphony, Nashville Symphony, Albany (NY) Symphony, Springfield (Mass) Symphony, Dayton Philharmonic, Honolulu Symphony, Kansas City Symphony, Greenwich (CT) Chorus and Orchestra, Manhattan Chamber Orchestra, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Cleveland Chamber Symphony.

. . . also, XTET (Los Angeles), ISIS (Austin, TX), Voices of Change ensemble, the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble, the Urban Quartet (Phoenix), the Eastman New Music Ensemble, the Indiana University New Music Ensemble and many others.

Schelle's wife is pianist, composer, accordionist, teacher Miho Sasaki (b. 1978, Tokyo, Japan)

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, 1989), the National Band Association (2012 Revelli Composition Prize) and many other organizations.

Schelle also received an ACI grant in 1999/2000.

2023: Schelle wins the "Crossroads of America" composers competition sponsored by the South Bend (IN) Symphony Orchestra with his "Summit at San Quentin".

First Prize includes a commission for a major new orchestral work to be premiered during the SBSO 2023/24 season.

In addition to working with many American orchestras, Schelle is a frequent Guest Composer for American universities and schools of music, where he gives master classes on his music and works with young composers and student ensembles.

Among many others, he has been featured for guest composer residencies at Indiana University, CCM, Arizona State University, Washington State University, California Lutheran University, Sam Houston State University.

Carnegie Mellon University, Kent State University, Southern Illinois University, University of Louisiana-Lafayette, Eastern Michigan University, State University of New York, University of Notre Dame, Capital University (OH), University of Massachusetts, Trinity University (TX), University of Wisconsin-Madison and many others.

He has also held extended residencies at the Spoleto USA Festival (Charleston, SC), the Wolf Trap Center for the Performing Arts (Vienna, VA), the MacDowell Colony X2, and for various prestigious new music festivals across the US and abroad.

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, 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 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.

From 2009 to 2013 he served three times as the featured Composer in Residence at both Nagoya Imperial University (Japan) and Aichi Prefectural University of Fine Arts and Music (Japan).

Schelle's 2014 opera "The End of Al Capone" (music and libretto by Schelle) was premiered in Indianapolis April 2015, and produced in May 2019 by Warsaw Chamber Opera / Chopin University New Music Consortium.

29 December 2022 : Schelle's "Escape from Xishuangbanna", commissioned by the Confucius Institute, is premiered at Carnegie Hall in NYC by the Asian Cultural Symphony Orchestra.

Orchestral

Wind Ensemble / Symphonic Band

Opera / Choral / Vocal

Chamber

Solo

Schelle is Composer in Residence and Founder/Director of the JCFA Composers Orchestra (new music ensemble) at the School of Music, Butler University, Indianapolis, IN, USA.

Schelle's daughter, Katie, is an interior designer and architect with Mitchell Studios in New Haven, CT. His son, Patrick, M.S.W. from NYU, PhD C.U.N.Y., is a social worker with Family Services of Westchester in New York City, White Plains and The Bronx.

April 2016, May 2019: guest composer / visiting professor at the Chopin University of Music (Warsaw, Poland) and the Krakow Academy of Music.