Geoffrey Michaels (born 1944 in

Perth, Western Australia Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth is ...

) is a prominent

violin The violin, sometimes known as a ''fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone (string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in the family in regular ...

ist and

violist ; german: Bratsche , alt=Viola shown from the front and the side , image=Bratsche.jpg , caption= , background=string , hornbostel_sachs=321.322-71 , hornbostel_sachs_desc=Composite chordophone sounded by a bow , range= , related= *Violin family ...

. A child prodigy in the 1950s, he currently performs and teaches primarily in the United States.

Biography

Geoffrey Michaels began taking violin lessons at the age of five, and soon was recognized as a prodigy. At 14, he became the youngest performer ever to win the Australian Broadcasting Commission’s concerto competition, and made his first recording, which sold out within weeks of its release. At the age of 16 he went to the United States to attend the

Curtis Institute of Music The Curtis Institute of Music is a private conservatory in Philadelphia. It offers a performance diploma, Bachelor of Music, Master of Music in opera, and a Professional Studies Certificate in opera. All students attend on full scholarship. Hi ...

, where he studied violin with

Efrem Zimbalist Efrem Zimbalist Sr. ( – February 22, 1985) was a concert violinist, composer, conductor and director of the Curtis Institute of Music. Early life Efrem Zimbalist Sr. was born on April 9, 1888, O. S., equivalent to April 21, 1889, in the Greg ...

, and violin and viola with

Oscar Shumsky Oscar Shumsky (March 23, 1917 in Philadelphia – July 24, 2000 in Rye, New York) was an American violinist and conductor born to Russian-Jewish parents. Oscar Shumsky married Louise Sophia Carboni on October 4, 1939. Together they had two ...

. While still a student he became a member of the

Curtis String Quartet The Curtis String Quartet was an American string quartet based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The quartet as an entity was formed in 1932Daniel John Carroll, "Brodsky, Jascha", ''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'', second edition, ...

. He then pursued a solo career, winning the fourth annual Emma Feldman Competition in Philadelphia, and placing among the finalists in the

Long-Thibaud-Crespin Competition The Long–Thibaud–Crespin Competition is an international classical music competition for pianists, violinists and singers that has been held in France since 1943. (A Jacques Thibaud Competition was held the year before in Bordeaux: Jacques ...

in Paris, the

Queen Elizabeth Competition The Queen Elisabeth Competition ( nl, Koningin Elisabethwedstrijd, french: Concours musical international Reine Élisabeth) is an international competition for career-starting musicians held in Brussels. The competition is named after Queen ...

in Brussels, and the

Tchaikovsky Competition The International Tchaikovsky Competition is a classical music competition held every four years in Moscow and Saint Petersburg, Russia, for pianists, violinists, and cellists between 16 and 32 years of age and singers between 19 and 32 years of ...

in Moscow, where he played Zimbalist’s ‘Coq d’Or Fantasy. He has been a professor at Swarthmore College,

Florida State University Florida State University (FSU) is a public research university in Tallahassee, Florida. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida. Founded in 1851, it is located on the oldest continuous site of higher education in the st ...

and the

University of British Columbia The University of British Columbia (UBC) is a public university, public research university with campuses near Vancouver and in Kelowna, British Columbia. Established in 1908, it is British Columbia's oldest university. The university ranks a ...

. Michaels currently lives in the Philadelphia area.

Performances

Michaels is a sought-after soloist and chamber music player. Notable contemporary concerto performances include the US premier of

Alfred Schnittke Alfred Garrievich Schnittke (russian: Альфре́д Га́рриевич Шни́тке, link=no, Alfred Garriyevich Shnitke; 24 November 1934 – 3 August 1998) was a Russian composer of Jewish-German descent. Among the most performed and re ...

’s Concerto Grosso (broadcast on Voice of America), and

Arvo Pärt Arvo Pärt (; born 11 September 1935) is an Estonian composer of contemporary classical music. Since the late 1970s, Pärt has worked in a minimalist style that employs tintinnabuli, a compositional technique he invented. Pärt's music is in pa ...

’s

Tabula Rasa ''Tabula rasa'' (; "blank slate") is the theory that individuals are born without built-in mental content, and therefore all knowledge comes from experience or perception. Epistemological proponents of ''tabula rasa'' disagree with the doctri ...

for Two Violins and Strings and

Fratres ' (meaning "brothers" in Latin) is a musical work by the Estonian composer Arvo Pärt exemplifying his tintinnabuli style of composition. It is three-part music, written in 1977, ''without fixed instrumentation'' and has been described as a “m ...

, both at Lincoln Center in New York. During his many tours of Australia, he collaborated with pianist and composer

Roger Smalley John Roger Smalley (26 July 1943 – 18 August 2015) was an Anglo-Australian composer, pianist and conductor. Professor Smalley was a senior honorary research fellow at the School of Music, University of Western Australia in Perth and honorary ...

. Smalley’s “Trio for Violin, Cello, and Piano” (1990–91), commissioned by the Melbourne International Chamber Music Competition, bears the dedication “To Geoffrey Michaels.” He is a founding member of th
Liebesfreud
Quartet and has also performed in many other chamber ensembles, including the Janus Piano Trio, Performers' Committee for Twentieth Century Music (New York), Richardson Chamber Players (Princeton), and Vancouver New Music Society.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Michaels, Geoffrey 1944 births Living people 20th-century classical violinists 21st-century classical violinists Australian classical violinists Male classical violinists Musicians from Perth, Western Australia 20th-century Australian male musicians 20th-century Australian musicians 21st-century Australian male musicians 21st-century Australian musicians