Michael Dale is a composer and multi-instrumentalist based in the San
Francisco Bay Area. He hails from Sacramento, where he first learned
music in the public schools. He went on to study performance and
composition at California State University, Sacramento (1995-2000).
At this time his primary teachers were: Stephen Blumberg and Leo
Eylar, composition; Deborah Pittman, clarinet; and Lorna Peters and
Kirsten Smith, piano. He also studied composition in summer courses
and masterclasses with: Andrew Imbrie, James Dillon, Chen Yi, George
Tsontakis, David Tcimpidis, and Bright Sheng. His compositions of this
period show influence of the minimalists, and of composers such as
Stravinsky, Ligeti, Copland, and Andriessen. At this time he also
began performing with groups such as the legendary Sacramento jazz
band Dutch Falconi and His Twisted Orchestra.
After a brief stint at New England Conservatory (2002), where he studied with Michael Gandolfi and Ran Blake (among others), he returned to the Sacramento area and resumed his activities as a teacher and performer. In this period his compositional style shifted to revolve around what he calls 'comprovisation,' an exploration of varying degrees of interaction between compositional structure and improvisation techniques. He worked with the free improvisation group Alchemy Duo, the new music ensemble Sacramento Experimental Music Group, and the rock bands Naresh and Steve Taylor Band. He also worked as an accompanist/music director on several musical theater productions at UC, Davis and CSU, Sacramento.
In 2006, he moved to the Oakland — East Bay area and resumed graduate studies at the renowned Mills College music department. While there, he studied composition, improvisation, piano and woodwinds with such luminaries as Roscoe Mitchell (Art Ensemble of Chicago), Fred Frith (Henry Cow, John Zorn's Naked City, Massacre), Chris Brown (Room, the HUB), Alvin Curran (Musica Elettronica Viva), Joelle Leandre, Steve Adams (ROVA), Matthew Goodheart (Zen Widow), John Bischoff (the HUB), and David Bernstein (much-respected John Cage scholar). At Mills, his work continued to explore the continuum of music-making methodologies spanning from through-composition to free improvisation, and he received his MA in composition in May 2008. Read Michael's thesis here.
Most recently, he has completed a score for the short film Milo's Wheels by Anders Osterballe, and a commission for chamber orchestra entitled it is past midnight, for the Sacramento-based group Orchestra 21.
Michael currently lives in the East Bay, maintains a studio of private piano and woodwind students, and continues to perform all around Northern California. He is available for lessons, performance engagements, and composition commissions.