Michael Park, Piano

Michael Park is a composer and pianist with a keen interest in speech, humour, and collaboration. His music aims to give audiences an experience beyond the realm of traditional concert-going. Heralded for his innovative projects, his Ted Talk Experiencing Disease Through Music has been described as moving, haunting, and an amazing translation of the disease. Awarded the Gold Medal and BMO Advocacy Award, his opera, Diagnosis: Diabetes was premiered during Erato Ensemble’s 2015-16 season.

Michael’s compositions have been performed in Vancouver at the Sonic Boom Music Festival and the Songfire Festival of Song, as well as concerts presented by Music on Main, the Erato Ensemble, and pianist, Corey Hamm. His music has been presented in Winnipeg by Flipside Opera and the Contemporary Opera Lab, and in New York by Opera On Tap.

An accomplished pianist, Michael’s experiences with improvisation and multi-disciplinary collaboration led him to studies in composition. He regularly performs his own works, as well as those of his colleagues and continues to collaborate with a wide variety of artists, including dancers, poets, visual artists, and musicians.

Michael completed his DMA at The University of British Columbia, previously completed graduate studies at The University of Western Ontario (2009), and undergraduate studies at the University of Manitoba (2007). His principal composition teachers include Dorothy Chang, Omar Daniel, Peter Paul Koprowski, Gordon Fitzell, and Orjan Sandred.

He is a founder and co-director of Art Song Lab, an innovative program that teams composers with poets. He is also the president of Vancouver’s Redshift Music Society.