Michael Abels is a composer/producer best known for his scores for writer/director Jordan Peele’s Oscar-winning film Get Out, and highly anticipated follow-up Us, for which Abels was awarded "Discovery of the Year" at the 2019 World Soundtrack Awards. Abels’ score for US was also shortlisted for the 2020 Oscars, received a Critics' Choice nomination, an NAACP Image Awards nomination, multiple critics’ awards, and was named “Score of the Decade” by online publication The Wrap. As a concert composer, Abels has received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, Meet The Composer, and the Sphinx Organization, among others. His orchestral works have been performed by the Chicago Symphony, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Atlanta Symphony, the Philadelphia Orchestra, and many more. As guest conductor of GET OUT IN CONCERT, Abels has led orchestras including National Symphony and the San Francisco Symphony. Several of his orchestral works have been recorded by the Chicago Sinfonietta on the Cedille label, including Delights & Dances and Global Warming. Abels is co-founder of the Composers Diversity Collective, an advocacy group to increase visibility of composers of color in film, game and streaming media. Abels’ first ballet, FALLING SKY, commissioned by Butler University, premiered on February 6, 2020. Upcoming projects include a diverse mix of concert work, film, and an opera. Following its Toronto International Film Festival 2019 premiere, the Hugh Jackman film BAD EDUCATION will premiere on HBO on April 25, with the soundtrack set to be released through WaterTower Music. A concert piece, AT WAR WITH OURSELVES, on a poem by National Book Award Winner Nikky Finney for the Kronos Quartet, will premiere on May 9th and 10th at SFJAZZ. OMAR, an original opera on the life of Omar ibn Said by Rhiannon Giddens and co-composed with Abels, will premiere May 22nd at Spoleto Festival USA, with Jamez McCorkle in the title role. The film ALL DAY AND A NIGHT, from Black Panther scribe Joe Robert Cole, will stream on Netflix from July 30th. A suite of Abels’ film music will be performed at the World Soundtrack Awards on October 24th at the Gent Film Festival. LA Opera will perform GET OUT IN CONCERT, at the Ace Theater in Los Angeles on October 30th and 31st.
Early life
Abels was born in Phoenix, Arizona. He spent his early years on a small farm in South Dakota, where he lived with his grandparents. Introduced to music via the family piano, he began showing an innate curiosity towards music at age 4. His music-loving grandparents convinced the local piano teacher to take him on as a student despite his age. At age 8, Abels began composing music, and by age 13, his first completed orchestral work was performed. Upon graduating from high school, Abels attended the University of Southern California Thornton School of Music in Los Angeles. Abels, who is mixed race, eventually studied West African drumming techniques at California Institute for the Arts, and sang in a predominantly black church choir to further explore his African-American roots.
