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Oakland Symphony Chorus preview of Mass for Freedom, 2019
Composer Michael T Roberts specializes in music for voice: choral music, art song, and theater music. Among commissions and premieres from the Oakland Symphony Chorus, Accord Treble Choir, International Orange Chorale, Pacific Edge Voices, and others, his music is steadily garnering attention from vocal ensembles across the country. In recent years, his works have been performed in New York City, San Francisco, Berkeley, Albany, CA, Portland, OR, Lincoln, NE, New Hampshire, and Vermont, including a number of world premieres and commissions.
Mike spent his formative years as a songwriter and improviser on electric guitar in rock, jazz, and funk, where music is good if the melodies make you want to sing and the rhythms make you want to move. He brings these instincts to the concert hall, where music is good if it makes you think as well as feel, where tradition is deep but individuality is prized. Growing up in New Canaan, CT, Mike first experienced choral music through weekly hymn singing at the Congregational Church. He thought it was pretty boring. In his senior year at Dartmouth, he sang in a performance of Rachmaninov's All-Night Vigil, conducted by his friend Steven Fox. The power of that music blew his mind—and his perception of choral music—completely away. He didn't have much time to think about it then (in that especially busy time he was writing his opera, Lotus Blooming in a Sea of Fire, and his band Stand Up Eight had just released its second album) but the All-Night Vigil was a seed that took root deep in his soul. It was a passion for the power of the human voice—a power he felt multiplied exponentially when many voices joined to sing together. As that seed sprouted, grew, and flowered through the years, he dedicated his musical life to writing for voice. Mike's mission is to inspire, enlighten, and entertain through this greatest of all instruments. His greatest joy is to draw people together with music, to connect listeners and performers with poetry, history, faith, meaningful stories, and sacred places. |
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In addition to his composing, Mike also teaches guitar and ukulele privately and serves as the kindergarten music teacher at Ecole Bilingue de Berkeley. He has studied voice with Michele Voilleque, focusing on singing and playing the lute songs of John Dowland.
Mike received his M.M. in Composition from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, where he studied under David Garner and studied choral writing and art song with David Conte. He received his B.A. in Music from Dartmouth College, where he studied composition with Kui Dong and guitar with John Muratore and David Newsam. He has also studied classical guitar with Gary Ryan at the Royal College of Music in London and jazz guitar at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, and has been coached in classical guitar by the Beijing Duo, Peter and Zoltan Katona, Marc Teicholz, David Tanenbaum, Larry Ferrara, and Richard Savino.
Still a Congregationalist at heart, Mike is also a practicing member of the Ancient Order of Druids in America. He lives in Berkeley, CA with his wife and two children.
Listen to Mike's previous work in the Composition Jukebox
Read Highlights from the Musical Life of Mike
Mike received his M.M. in Composition from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, where he studied under David Garner and studied choral writing and art song with David Conte. He received his B.A. in Music from Dartmouth College, where he studied composition with Kui Dong and guitar with John Muratore and David Newsam. He has also studied classical guitar with Gary Ryan at the Royal College of Music in London and jazz guitar at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, and has been coached in classical guitar by the Beijing Duo, Peter and Zoltan Katona, Marc Teicholz, David Tanenbaum, Larry Ferrara, and Richard Savino.
Still a Congregationalist at heart, Mike is also a practicing member of the Ancient Order of Druids in America. He lives in Berkeley, CA with his wife and two children.
Listen to Mike's previous work in the Composition Jukebox
Read Highlights from the Musical Life of Mike