Michael Stephen Brown is a composer and pianist hailed by the New York Times as "one of the leading figures in the current renaissance of performer-composers." A 2025 MacDowell Fellow, 2024 Yaddo Artist, and winner of Lincoln Center's Emerging Artist Award and an Avery Fisher Career Grant, Michael performs internationally and receives commissions from orchestras, soloists, and festivals around the world. Recent highlights include a recital at Alice Tully Hall for CMS, collaborations with cellist Nicholas Canellakis and violinists Pinchas Zukerman, Kristin Lee, and Arnaud Sussmann, and an Asia recital tour. Currently he is composing The Magical Carnival, a fantastical journey for chamber ensemble, co-commissioned by four US organizations including Sarasota's La Musica and The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Chamber Music Society of Palm Beach, and Friends of Music Kansas City. His first album devoted entirely to his music, Twelve Blocks, will be released in fall 2025. He is the composer for Angeline Gragasin's upcoming film Look But Don't Touch. Michael lives in New York City and Wallkill, New York, with his two 19th-century Steinways, Octavia and Daria.
"My musical life began at the age of two as I danced in front of the TV to the songs of Raffi. By age three, I had listened to Billy Joel's Piano Man so many times that I wore out the cassette tape. At four, I realized I wanted to be the reincarnation of Mozart so I embarked upon a life of exploration, some isolation, but mostly pure and utter joy."
Michael Stephen Brown is a composer and pianist hailed by the New York Times as "one of the leading figures in the current renaissance of performer-composers." A 2025 MacDowell Fellow, 2024 Yaddo Artist, and winner of Lincoln Center's Emerging Artist Award and an Avery Fisher Career Grant, Michael performs internationally and receives commissions from orchestras, soloists, and festivals around the world. Recent highlights include a recital at Alice Tully Hall for CMS, collaborations with cellist Nicholas Canellakis and violinists Pinchas Zukerman, Kristin Lee, and Arnaud Sussmann, and an Asia recital tour. Currently he is composing The Magical Carnival, a fantastical journey for chamber ensemble, co-commissioned by four US organizations including Sarasota's La Musica and The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Chamber Music Society of Palm Beach, and Friends of Music Kansas City. His first album devoted entirely to his music, Twelve Blocks, will be released in fall 2025. He is the composer for Angeline Gragasin's upcoming film Look But Don't Touch. Michael lives in New York City and Wallkill, New York, with his two 19th-century Steinways, Octavia and Daria.
"My musical life began at the age of two as I danced in front of the TV to the songs of Raffi. By age three, I had listened to Billy Joel's Piano Man so many times that I wore out the cassette tape. At four, I realized I wanted to be the reincarnation of Mozart so I embarked upon a life of exploration, some isolation, but mostly pure and utter joy."