Michael Schelle


Michael Schelle, born January 22, 1950 in Philadelphia, is a composer of contemporary concert music. He is also a performer, conductor, author, and teacher.

Background

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. 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 and the University of Minnesota. Schelle studied composition with Arnold Franchetti, Aaron Copland, Paul Fetler, and Dominick Argento.

Far and Wide

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 Symphony, Springfield Symphony, Dayton Philharmonic, Honolulu Symphony, Kansas City Symphony, Greenwich Chorus and Orchestra, Manhattan Chamber Orchestra, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Cleveland Chamber Symphony.... also, XTET, ISIS, Voices of Change ensemble, the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble, the Urban Quartet , the Eastman New Music Ensemble, the Indiana University New Music Ensemble and many others.
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, Arts Midwest, the Great Lakes Arts Alliance, the American Pianists Association, the International Percussive Arts Society, the for Music Composition, the National Band Association and many other organizations.
In 2005/2006, funded by a grant from the American Symphony Orchestra League, Inc., 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 from the Arts Council of Indianapolis, Schelle enjoyed an extended visit to Japan where he worked with legendary avant garde composer Hifumi Shimoyama in Tokyo. Schelle also received an ACI grant in .

Guest composer

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, , Sam Houston State University. Carnegie Mellon University, Kent State University, Southern Illinois University, University of Louisiana-Lafayette, , State University of New York, University of Notre Dame, Capital University, University of Massachusetts, Trinity University, University of Wisconsin-Madison and many others. He has also held extended residencies at the Spoleto USA Festival, the Wolf Trap Center for the Performing Arts, the MacDowell Colony, and for various prestigious new music festivals across the US and abroad.
From 2009–2013 he served three times as the featured Composer in Residence at both Nagoya Imperial University and Aichi Prefectural University of Fine Arts and Music.
April 2016, May 2019: guest composer / visiting professor at the Chopin University of Music and the Krakow Academy of Music.
Schelle's 2014 opera "The End of Al Capone" was premiered in Indianapolis April 2015, and produced in May 2019 by Warsaw Chamber Opera / Chopin University New Music Consortium

Compositions

Orchestral
Wind Ensemble / Symphonic Band
  • A Far Cry from Krakow
  • O Magma Mysterium
  • Fear Strikes Out
  • Extraction on No. 9
  • The End of the World - a consortium commission from 35 university and professional wind ensembles across the US and Asia, "E.O.W" was the winner of the 2012 National Band Assoc. William D. Revelli Composition Prize
  • Prayer
  • When Hell Freezes Over
  • Guttersnipe
  • Contraband
  • Seven Steps from Hell
  • Cliffhanger March
  • King Ubu
Opera / Choral / Vocal
  • The End of Al Capone, mono-opera for voice and large chamber ensemble
  • Ra-ahmen, SATB and four doublebasses
  • Aesop Rules, 55:00 musical for kids, tenor sax, keyboards, percussion
  • Pipuff, SATB
  • Struwwelpeter, for tenor and piano
  • The Great Soap Opera, 90:00 chamber opera
  • Six Seasonal Anthems, SATB, organ
  • Dei Angelus, SATB, organ
  • Caroleluia, SATB
  • Swanwhite, for soprano and piano
  • The Wife Wrapt in Wether's Skin, TTBB
Chamber
  • JUKAI: The Mt. Fuji Suicide Forest, hichiriki and chamber ensemble
  • Summit at San Quentin, large chamber ensemble
  • Comfort Music, two pianos, seven hands
  • The Tragic Paradigm of Miss Mi$-T's Misguided Expectations, chamber ensemble
  • The Eisenstein Mummers, chamber ensemble
  • Hesitation Killed the Cat, chamber ensemble
  • Rosemary's Baby's Accordions, chamber ensemble
  • Vorsichtig, guitar duo
  • The Illusion of Invincibility, violin and piano
  • My Tears Fall Dry, violin and piano
  • Chords That Rhyme With Your Eyes, clarinet and piano
  • Bury the Hatchet, for guitar quartet
  • Tranquilizer, for chamber ensemble
  • The Wolves of Parnassus, for chamber ensemble
  • Mystic Mourning, for solo violin and chamber ensemble
  • Burning Crusaders, for five trumpets and percussion
  • Crusher, for solo guitar w/piano accompaniment
  • Meine Grossmutter Kostbaren Klarinette, for clarinet and piano
  • My Precious Iron Lung, for horn and piano
  • My Precious Iron Cello, for euphonium and piano
  • Aka Sakana, for solo clarinet
  • Their House Was Around Here, Somewhere..., for piano and chamber ensemble
  • Sprechstisambastimme, for string quartet
  • Red Knuckles, for clarinet and tenor sax
  • Say Goodnight, Gracie, for large chamber ensemble
  • Nagoya Spiral, for any four players and pre-recorded medium
  • Calhoun, for large chamber ensemble
  • The Fall of Susan McClary, for chamber ensemble
  • No Child Left Behind, large chamber ensemble
  • The Viola the Wind Swept Away, for solo viola and chamber ensemble
  • Heartland, for clarinet, tenor sax, violin, cello, bass, piano and percussion
  • Struwwelpeter, for tenor and piano, for tenor and chamber ensemble
  • It's Curtains for You, Bub, for large chamber ensemble
  • Prayer, for solo cello with harp and piano
  • Gimme Shelter, for violin and piano
  • Godzilla for clarinet, bass clarinet, tenor sax, piano, bass, percussion
  • Berlin Archetype for clarinet, cello, pinao
  • Inizio, for violin and cello
  • Musica Magnetizzare, for five chamber players
  • Howl, for solo clarinet and four chamber players
  • Play Us Chastity on Your Violin, for solo violin and large chamber ensemble
  • Music for the Alabama Kid, for chamber ensemble
  • Music for Two Pianos
  • Cry Wolf, for cello and 5 percussionists
  • Music for the Last Days of Strindberg, for chamber ensemble
  • Chamber Concerto, for solo violin, flute, cello and piano
Solo'''
Schelle is Composer in Residence and Founder/Director of the JCFA Composers Orchestra 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, is a social worker with Family Services of Westchester in New York City, White Plains and The Bronx.