Born in Phoenix, Arizona, Michael Abels spent his early years on his grandparents’ farm in South Dakota, where he started studying piano at age four and composing at 8. Reflecting on his youth, Abels writes: “I was totally fascinated by how music works, what it does. The fact that you can put these notes together, and that they can stir up such emotions, has always been amazing to me.”

Abels went on to study music at USC in Los Angeles and West African music at the California Institute for the Arts. He is currently Director of Music for New Roads School in Santa Monica, overseeing a program that provides hands-on instruction in the latest technologies integrally important to contemporary popular music. He is also co-founder of the Composers Diversity Collective, an advocacy group to increase visibility of composers of color in film, game and streaming media. 

Abels composed Outburst in 2005 for the Annapolis Symphony. He considers the work a demonstration of the colors and subtleties of orchestration.

Program notes by:
Joseph & Elizabeth Kahn
Wordpros@mindspring.com
www.wordprosmusic.com