Download WORD - The Maestro Company

michael upward
Bio
Michael Upward is a composer, pianist and musical director who has a Master of Arts
in Music Composition. Michael graduated with honors from the University of
California Riverside and wrote a Requiem Mass for Chorus, Soloists and Orchestra.
His choral compositions have been performed throughout the United States for which
he has received numerous awards. He has written over 50 choral compositions,
many of which have been published by Maestro Music Press.
Michael has written four full-length musicals including Anne of Green Gables which
enjoyed a highly successful staged reading in Pasadena featuring Alison Arngrim
(Nellie Olsen on Little House and the Prairie). Michael wrote two Nutrition Education
musicals (Indy Jo and the Template of Health and Mission Nutrition, the Musical!)
which are performed by Southland Opera over 200 times a year in school districts
across Southern California.
In addition to his composing, he is also an award winning musical director and has
directed such shows as The Fantasticks, Guys & Dolls, Evita, Nunsense II, and
Quilters, for which he won the Inland Empire's Best Musical Direction. He was the
conductor of the Moreno Valley Master Chorale and has guest conducted with the
Riverside Master Chorale. He is now the Contemporary Music Director at two large
Catholic Churches in Orange County, and continues to work with Ladera Performing
Arts and several other Southern California theater companies.
Michael has been a voter for the Los Angeles Ovation Theater Awards and also
serves on the board of directors for a nationally known Gilbert & Sullivan touring
company called Opera A La Carte.
Press Quotes
“Psalm 139 is uplifting, thanks to the composer’s elegant melodic line that rises and engulfs like a heavenly balm.”
Jean-Pierre Barricelli, Riverside Press Enterprise Music Review
“Upward’s Requiescat is a truly handsome choral piece.” Howard Swann, Chapman Choral Festival
“…a delightfully romantic composition.”
Rodney Eichenberry, University of Southern California
“A showstopper: both the singers and the audience loved Michael’s composition.”
Sheridan Ball, Cypress College
14940 Gagely Dr. #F, La Mirada, CA 90638  323-481-3590  [email protected]  www.mchaelupward.com