"What I love about Michael's compositions is the way he works with variations on a theme. Themes punctuated by so many individual motifs, then revisited as an oblique variation, as if the living theme is undergoing a rapid metamorphosis. Michael cites surrealism as an influence on his work, and it can sound as if the music is playing tricks on you, as if a pattern of notes could change color before your eyes." -Jeff Gregerson, Pink Noise Podcast
Michael R. Oldham (b. 1989 Braidwood, IL, he/him/his) is a composer, pianist, and pretty cool guy (not fact-checked, but seems legit). Wikipedia hasn't gotten ahold of his biography yet, so I had nothing to copy and paste into this portion of the website but I'll try my best:
Rumor has it he grew up in an undisclosed small town in Illinois. The town is mostly known for its nuclear power plant and for being so boring that he spent most of his time at his piano because there wasn't much else to do (or really until his parents started yelling at him to stop playing because they were trying to watch whatever was on prime-time TV).
Currently, Michael keeps very busy as a Music Director with The Second City's national touring company (Green Co!) and as a freelance pianist for cabarets, shows, high school choirs, and everything in between. Professional productions include: Queer Eye: The Musical Parody at The Second City and Children of Eden with Broadway in Chicago, (where he was able to work side-by-side with Stephen Schwartz! Neat!).
He has collaborated with Chicago Fringe Opera, the Art Institute of Chicago, New Music Chicago, and has performed everywhere from the Green Mill to the Kennedy Center (willing to travel - hint hint). A prolific composer (feels weird to say this in the third person), he has released over 13 albums and EPs of his own music, of which his aunt says is "really quite something."
He earned his degree in Film Scoring and Composition from Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts, and studied briefly at Philippos Nakas Conservatory in Athens, Greece (read: debt). He can be found composing at his keyboard (nerd), watching Wes Anderson movies (bigger nerd), making exhausting playlists of indie music (yikes), and ordering too much Thai food for delivery (honestly worth the delivery fees). (If you find any grammatical errors - just be kind and don't mention them he is fragile.)
Rumor has it he grew up in an undisclosed small town in Illinois. The town is mostly known for its nuclear power plant and for being so boring that he spent most of his time at his piano because there wasn't much else to do (or really until his parents started yelling at him to stop playing because they were trying to watch whatever was on prime-time TV).
Currently, Michael keeps very busy as a Music Director with The Second City's national touring company (Green Co!) and as a freelance pianist for cabarets, shows, high school choirs, and everything in between. Professional productions include: Queer Eye: The Musical Parody at The Second City and Children of Eden with Broadway in Chicago, (where he was able to work side-by-side with Stephen Schwartz! Neat!).
He has collaborated with Chicago Fringe Opera, the Art Institute of Chicago, New Music Chicago, and has performed everywhere from the Green Mill to the Kennedy Center (willing to travel - hint hint). A prolific composer (feels weird to say this in the third person), he has released over 13 albums and EPs of his own music, of which his aunt says is "really quite something."
He earned his degree in Film Scoring and Composition from Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts, and studied briefly at Philippos Nakas Conservatory in Athens, Greece (read: debt). He can be found composing at his keyboard (nerd), watching Wes Anderson movies (bigger nerd), making exhausting playlists of indie music (yikes), and ordering too much Thai food for delivery (honestly worth the delivery fees). (If you find any grammatical errors - just be kind and don't mention them he is fragile.)
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Photos by Sarah Elizabeth Larson
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Selected Credits.
- Second City National Touring Company - Music Director [Chicago, IL\
- Children of Eden - Assistant Music Director/Keyboard I [Broadway in Chicago\
- Queer Eye: The Musical Parody - Understudy Music Director [Second City\
- Wicker Park, In Caricature - Commissioned by Chicago Fringe Opera for A City of Works
- Sounds of Pride - featured performer and composer [Chicago Fringe Opera\
- New Music Chicago Presents - Grand Delusions on a Small Scale with Michael R. Oldham [Chicago Cultural Center\
- Performance with the Paper Machete - [Green Mill Lounge, Chicago\
- Art Institute of Chicago Block Party 2019 - Art as Music
- New Amsterdam Composers Lab Fellow (what up fellow composers?)
- Merriam, A Matzah Ballin' Good Time - improv sketch show, Music Director/Pianist [Sketch Fest + Second City, Chicago\
- Shalom! - improv sketch show, Music Director/Pianist [Second City, Chicago\
- Acquaintances - improv sketch show, Music Director/Pianist [Second City, Chicago\
- Le Voyage Dans La Lune - new score for the classic silent film by Georges Méliès, commissioned and premiered live-to-picture by the Monarch Wind Quintet of Lewis University [Romeoville, IL\
- Vienna Symphonic Library's International Film Scoring Competition - Top 10 Finalist
- Oticons Faculty International Film Music Competition - Top 30 Finalist
- Battleship Potemkin - additional music, orchestration, score prep. for Berklee's Silent Film Orchestra + composer Sheldon Mirowitz [Kennedy Center, Washington D.C. & Coolidge Corner Theater, Brookline, MA\
- Paramount Pictures Internship - cataloguing + animated short film score [Boston, MA\
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Photos by Nick Stetina