A prizewinner of numerous international competitions, including the Carmel Music Society Competition, Crescendo Music Awards, Chopin International Competition of the 1000 Islands, The Plowman Chamber Music Competition, and the Harold Protsman Competition. Michael has been called “a pianist to remember” by Het Nieuwsblad, and his playing has been hailed as “elegant, stylish, and powerful” (Peninsula Reviews), “poetic” (Het Nieuwsblad), and as “a pianist with an admirable ability to serve the music at times with the subtlety of a master chamber music player, and also at times to blaze forth with commanding virtuosity and to carry us to dramatic climaxes” (Peninsula Reviews).

Michael has performed in renowned venues, including Carnegie Hall, Orchestra Hall (Minneapolis), the Preston Bradley Center in Chicago, the Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw, the National Academy for the Performing Arts of Trinidad and Tobago, the Musical Instrument Museum in Brussels, and the Sunset Center in Carmel, California. Additionally, he is a sought-after guest artist, appearing regularly at festivals including the Gentsche Festspiele (Belgium), the Kwadrofonik Festival (Poland), the Forum de la Création Musicale (Belgium), Musiksommer Schloss Rosenegg (Austria), Thailand International Composition Festival, and the Lake George Music Festival. Michael also co-founded and directed the Brussels-based “Music of Changes” festival, which presented adventurous thematically-based programs of new and traditional works. A passionate advocate of new music, he has commissioned works by Claude Ledoux and Jesse Limbacher.

Michael has been featured as soloist with the Monterey and Tulsa Symphonies, and the Idyllwild Arts Academy Alumni Orchestra, among others. Additionally, he has worked with the most renowned artists in the field including Gary Graffman, Claude Frank, John O’Conor, Christopher Elton, Ursula Oppens, Ransom Wilson, Boris Berman, Hung-Kuan Chen, Robert McDonald, and members of the Brentano and Tokyo Quartets.

Michael holds a doctoral and two masters degrees from the Yale School of Music and a B.M. and B.A. in English Literature cum laude from the Eastman School of Music and the University of Rochester respectively. In addition, he attended the Paris Conservatoire and the Royal Ghent Conservatory, the latter as a Fellow of the Belgian American Educational Foundation. His principal teachers and mentors include Peter Frankl, Nelita True, Melvin Chen, Daan Vandewalle, and Nicholas Angelich.

Highlights of this season include solo and chamber performances throughout Austria, Belgium, and the United States; residencies at the University of Chicago, Vassar College, Denison University, Montclair State University, and Marshall University; and the creation of a new music festival, Conflux, in Washington, D.C that will debut in 2023. His debut album, American Dissident, which features political works by Rzewski and Margaret Bonds, will be released in late 2022.

Michael resides in Washington, D.C. where he serves as the artistic director of Conflux and as a faculty member at The International School of Music. Previously, he resided in New York City where he was on faculty at NYU’s Gallatin School of Individualized Study, Rutgers’ Mason Gross School of the Arts, and Wetherby-Pembridge School New York.