Michael Fili is an American musician whose work emphasizes the promotion and live performance of contemporary classical music. His compositions are regularly performed throughout the United States and Europe and have received multiple awards on both continents. As a professional chorister, Michael has performed with many of the world’s prominent orchestras, including the leading ensembles of Amsterdam, Baltimore, Berlin, Munich, New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, San Francisco, and Washington DC. Michael has been active in chamber and symphonic choruses based in Pittsburgh PA, Princeton NJ, and Washington DC.
Michael is co-founder and Artistic Director of the new-music ensemble StageFree Music, a Washington, DC based chamber ensemble that endeavors to produce intimate, comfortable, and engaging performances while supporting the work of living composers, particularly those with ties to the DC region. Michael hopes his work with StageFree will help raise the profile of new-music in the region by producing concerts that contextualize the music and provide an opportunity for audiences to interact with those who create and perform it. Michael also serves as Co-Artistic Director of TEMPO, the University of Maryland’s new music ensemble, whose artistic goal is to bring the music of today’s great composers to College Park.
Michael earned his doctorate in composition at the University of Maryland, where he studied with composer Mark Wilson. He also holds degrees from Carnegie Mellon University and Westminster Choir College, where his primary teachers included Leonardo Balada and Joel Phillips, composition; Charles Walker, voice; and Robert Page, conducting. He is active as a music educator currently teaching music theory at the University of Maryland and the College of Southern Maryland. His compositions are published with Musikverlag Hayo in Europe, Transcontinental Music in the United States, and self-published at www.michaelfili.com.