Mike Nielsen (born 21 February 1961) is an Irish

guitarist A guitarist (or a guitar player) is a person who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of guitar family instruments such as classical guitars, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and bass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themselv ...

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Defi ...

, and educator specializing in

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...

and improvised music.

Career

Born in

Sligo Sligo ( ; ga, Sligeach , meaning 'abounding in shells') is a coastal seaport and the county town of County Sligo, Ireland, within the western province of Connacht. With a population of approximately 20,000 in 2016, it is the List of urban areas ...

, he began on ukulele at the age of four. He studied at the

Royal Irish Academy of Music The Royal Irish Academy of Music (RIAM) in Dublin, Ireland, is one of Europe's oldest music conservatoires, specialising in classical music and the Irish harp. It is located in a Georgian building on Westland Row in Dublin. An institution which ...

and the Dublin College of Music as well as the

Berklee College Berklee College of Music is a private music college in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the largest independent college of contemporary music in the world. Known for the study of jazz and modern American music, it also offers college-level course ...

, Boston. Performing on acoustic and electric guitars, he has worked with

Kenny Wheeler Kenneth Vincent John Wheeler, OC (14 January 1930 – 18 September 2014) was a Canadian composer and trumpet and flugelhorn player, based in the U.K. from the 1950s onwards. Most of his performances were rooted in jazz, but he was also active ...

Larry Coryell Larry Coryell (born Lorenz Albert Van DeLinder III; April 2, 1943 – February 19, 2017) was an American jazz guitarist. Early life Larry Coryell was born in Galveston, Texas, United States. He never knew his biological father, a musician. He w ...

Kenny Werner Kenny Werner (born November 19, 1951) is an American jazz pianist, composer, and author. Early life Born in Brooklyn, New York, on November 19, 1951 and then growing up in Oceanside, Long Island, Werner began playing and performing at a young a ...

Jason Moran Jason Moran may refer to: * Jason Moran (criminal) (1967–2003), Australian mobster * Jason Moran (musician) Jason Moran (born January 21, 1975) is an American jazz pianist, composer, and educator involved in multimedia art and theatrical inst ...

Simon Nabatov Simon Nabatov (born 11 January 1959) is a Russian-American jazz pianist. Early life Nabatov was born in Moscow on 11 January 1959. His parents were Leon, a professional pianist and choir conductor who was a native of Belarus, and Regina. Nabatov ...

Eric Revis Eric Revis (born May 31, 1967) is a jazz bassist and composer. Revis came to prominence as a bassist with singer Betty Carter in the mid-1990s. Since 1997 he has been a member of Branford Marsalis's ensemble. His debut album, ''Tales of the Stutt ...

Joe Lovano Joseph Salvatore Lovano (born December 29, 1952)"Joe Lovano." ''Contemporary Musicians''. Vol. 13. Farmington Hills, MI: Gale, 1994. Retrieved via ''Biography in Context'' database, May 5, 2017. is an American jazz saxophonist, alto clarin ...

and

Dave Liebman David Liebman (born September 4, 1946) is an American saxophonist, flautist and jazz educator. He is known for his innovative lines and use of atonality. He was a frequent collaborator with pianist Richie Beirach. In June 2010, he received a N ...

, with whom he toured Europe in 2001, New Zealand/Australia in 2004 and has recorded two albums. He has also performed with the

Crash Ensemble Crash Ensemble is an Irish new music ensemble, which performs a range of contemporary classical music, as well as touring and organising festivals. History The group was founded in 1997 by composer Donnacha Dennehy, conductor and pianist Andrew S ...

and featured as a soloist with the

RTÉ Concert Orchestra The RTÉ Concert Orchestra is one of the two full-time professional radio orchestras in Ireland that are part of RTÉ, the national broadcasting station. Since its formation as the Radio Éireann Light Orchestra in 1948, the RTÉ Concert Orchestr ...

. Nielsen is Director of Jazz Performance at the

Dublin Institute of Technology Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT, ga, Institiúid Teicneolaíochta Bhaile Átha Cliath) was a major third-level institution in Dublin, Ireland. On 1 January 2019 DIT was dissolved and its functions were transferred to the Technological Un ...

Conservatory of Music and Drama.

Discography

* ''Solo at Garden City'' (2000) * ''Osmosis'' (2003) * ''Sound Recipes'' (2004) * ''Evolution'' with

Benjamin Dwyer Benjamin Dwyer (born 3 August 1965) is an Irish composer, guitarist and musicologist. Life Dwyer was born in Dublin and studied the classical guitar at the DIT Conservatory of Music and Drama, Dublin, and at the Royal Academy of Music, London. H ...

(2005)

References

1961 births Living people People from Sligo (town) Irish jazz guitarists Musicians from County Sligo 20th-century Irish guitarists 21st-century Irish guitarists 20th-century Irish male musicians 21st-century Irish male musicians Irish male guitarists Alumni of the Royal Irish Academy of Music {{Ireland-musician-stub