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Bio:
Michael LaCroix's music has received awards in the SOCAN Foundation's Young Composers Competition in Canada (for his piano work, Potens Nuntius), in the Fourth International Prof. Ivan Spassov Composition Competition in Bulgaria (for Twelve Faces of the Emerald), and an SCI/ASCAP Regional Award (for A Presence Close as Breath). His music has been featured in concerts, festivals, and
workshops across North America, South America, and Europe, by such performers
as: The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra and conductor Cliff Colnot in Chicago; The Orchestre National de Lorraine and conductor Diego Masson in Metz, France as part of the Acanthes Festival; eighth blackbird in Chicago; Psappha as part of the St. Magnus Festival in Kirkwall, Scotland; mezzo-soprano Julia Bentley; the FLUX Quartet at CAMI Hall in NYC; Aventa as part of the Ignite! Composers Workshop; pianist Lisa Kaplan at PianoForte Inc. in Chicago;
by Detroit Symphony Orchestra pianist, Robert Conway in solo concerts in
Detroit and Windsor, Canada, as well as part of a duo with Canadian pianist
Catherine Wilson, commissioning a work for performances in Abbotsford, B.C.,
Toronto, Detroit, and Columbus, OH; the ensemble of the ARCANA Composers’
meeting in Capriolo, Italy; Brazilian concert pianist Paulo Gazzañeo on two
separate tours across South America; Third Angle New Music Ensemble in
Portland, OR; Ensemble Green in California; by the composer as pianist at La Schola Cantorum in Paris,
France, and at the Detroit International Jazz Festival; and others.
In recent years, he has
dramatically increased his activities on a number of fronts, including
experiments in electronic music, sound installation and video projects, a
number of new works for traditional forces, as well as producing his own
concerts in international exchanges with up-and-coming and established ensembles.
Michael is in the midst of a year-long appointment as an adjunct instructor in music theory at Wheaton College Conservatory, and will teach 18th Century Counterpoint in the College at the University of Chicago this winter. He has previously taught music theory at the University of Windsor, Canada. Additionally, he is in advanced residence as a student in the PhD program in music composition at the University of Chicago, where his principle teachers have included Marta Ptaszynska, Shulamit Ran, Elzbieta Sikora, and electronic and multimedia music with Howard Sandroff and Kotoka Suzuki. He graduated Cum Laude from Wayne State University, Detroit, MI, with a BMus in Jazz Piano, and continued at WSU with graduate work in composition under James Hartway. He has also had short term studies or participated in master classes with internationally recognized composers Jan Radzynski, Salvatore Sciarrino, Fabio Nieder, Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, Alasdair Nicolson, Sally Beamish, Klaus Ib Jørgensen, Michel Gonneville, Michèle Reverdy, Lukas Foss, Noël Lee, Leslie Bassett, James Lentini, Narcis Bonet, and Philip Lasser. Recent and Upcoming Activities: a tour of Twelve Faces of the Emerald (read about the first performance of the work in 8bb's blog in the entry Prima Prima's) beginning at the Chicago Cultural Center on July 21, 2008 featuring soprano Jennifer Macfarlane Haworth and members of the Millennium Chamber Players, as well as dates in early August 2008 in Toronto and Montréal including a performance at the Jusq'aux oreilles Festival with baritone Brad Jungwirth as soloist. (Read the short, but favorable, review from the Montréal Gazette.) | ||
