Michael is a South African–born composer, cellist, conductor, and educator now based in New Jersey - proof that life can take you very far from where you started and still hand you a snow shovel. He earned his BMus in orchestral studies and composition from Stellenbosch University and had the privilege of studying cello with Dalena Roux, and composition with Hans Roosenschoon and the late Peter Klatzow.

As a performer, Michael has played in ensembles across South Africa and now throughout the Northeast. His music for orchestra, chamber groups, and dance-physical theatre, has made its way to the International Horn Symposium, the Grahamstown National Arts Festival, and the Wakkerstroom Arts Festival, to name but a few. Last year he conducted Fenix Strings with fellow South African Brendan Vincent as soloist, premiering his piano concerto As the Crow Flies. He was also featured twice as composer by Queer Urban Orchestra in their '25/'26 season.

Connection is a core tenet for him. Whether in a quartet, in an orchestra or serving on the board of the Violoncello Society of New York, “we are better together,” is what he believes life is about. When not immersed in music (a surprisingly small slice of the pie), Michael loves traveling with his husband, exploring food, and adopting plants at a rate that suggests no one is supervising him. He takes his coffee seriously and his metronome markings less so.