Michael Mauldin, Born in Texas in 1947, first visited New Mexico in the 1950's when his father, a Presbyterian minister, brought his family to church retreats at Ghost Ranch, near Abiquiu. Michael determined as a boy that he wanted to live in a place like that--a place that "not only surrounds you with space, but that opens up new space inside you.” His music portrays the power and magic of New Mexico’s rugged beauty and ancient cultures.

His first major composition, Three New Mexico Landscapes for Clarinet and Piano, won first place in the Bicentennial Composition Contest sponsored by the state's Composers Guild, and was performed during the New Mexico Bicentennial Concert held at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in 1976.

Inspired by the writings of Peggy Pond Church and Edith Warner in "The House at Otowi Bridge", Mauldin composed Enchanted Land: Suite for Narrator and Orchestra in 1976. This work and Three Dances From Chaco Canyon were premiered by the Chamber Orchestra of Albuquerque at UNM's Keller Hall in 1981. Other works include Petroglyph for Strings (1978), inspired by the Anasazi rock drawings of New Mexico; Voices From Chaco (1980), a concertino for piano and woodwind quintet; Fajada Butte: An Epiphany (1982), inspired by the discovery of an ingenious sun shrine and solstice marker on top of Chaco Canyon’s Fajada Butte; and Prayer of Mesas (1988), commissioned by the University of New Mexico, the Albuquerque Creative Arts Achievement Awards Project and the Urban Enhancement Trust Fund to celebrate the university's centennial.

Mauldin has conducted many student and community orchestras, as well as the New Mexico Symphony, and served for seven years as Musical Director of the Albuquerque Boy Choir. He actively promotes private and public arts-education throughout the country. He operates a teaching and composing retreat center in Cuba, New Mexico.