The Cleveland Composers Guild

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Guild Members

Michael Leese

Michael Leese holds degrees in composition from Boston University (M.Mus.) and Jacksonville University (B.Mus.). His teachers have included Theodore Antoniou, Bernard Rands, and Edwin London. His music is performed and broadcast regularly across the U.S. and recently in Canada and Europe. He has written over 90 works for orchestra, band, jazz band, chamber ensemble, solo instruments, choir, and voice. His work for chamber orchestra, After the Reign, written at the MacDowell Colony, was premiered by the Cleveland Chamber Symphony in the Fall of 1993.

As a flutist, his interest lies in improvisation. He has given workshops and concerts of improvisation in San Diego, Cleveland, Hartford, Sofia, Plovdiv and Berlin. In the Spring of 1993, Michael traveled to Bulgaria, sponsored by the Chitalishte foundation, where he participated in a cultural exchange with local composers and musicians. In the Fall of 1993, a grant from Meet the Composer allowed the development and performance of improvised music for a full evening dance piece, MA, which was premiered in Hartford by the Judy Dworin Performance Ensemble, with subsequent performances in Cleveland. Recently, he was responsible for improvised incidental music for the play "The Sun and the Moon Live in the Sky" by Ellen Lewis, which was part of the 13th Annual New Plays Festival of the Cleveland Public Theater.

As a freelance music copyist, Michael provides camera-ready, computer-generated score and parts for composers and publishers, using the SCORE program and an 11x17, 1200 dpi plain paper laser printer. He has prepared materials for performance by the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Cincinnati, Philadelphia, and Boston Symphony Orchestras, as well as the Cleveland Chamber Symphony and numerous chamber ensembles.