Michael Berger

    MICHAEL BERGER, after two years of preliminary study at Kwantlen University College in Langley, British Columbia, transferred to the University of Victoria in 2001.  There he studied with Christopher Butterfield, earning his Bachelor of Music in Composition and Theory in 2005.  Michael then completed a Master of Music in Composition (2007) at the University of Alberta with the support of funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. While there, he studied with Drs. Howard Bashaw, Andriy Talpash, and Mark Hannesson.  Michael is presently in the second year of the D.M.A in Composition program at Stanford University, with renewed funding from the S.S.H.R.C..  In the summer of 2006 Michael participated in the Montréal-based Quatuor Bozzini’s annual “composer’s kitchen” and Arraymusic’s “Young Composers’ Workshop” in Toronto the following year.  In Autumn of 2008, he completed a commission from the Ensemble Contemporain de Montréal + for their biennial "Génération 2008" Canadian tour.  In January of 2009, Michael presented a paper discussing this piece, “Skeleton: the Decayed Remnants of Time” at the Hawaii International Conference on Arts and Humanities.  Since arriving at Stanford University, in addition to his compositional work, Michael has focused on researching new devices for emotive electroacoustic performance at Stanford’s Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA).  In 2010 he presented a poster on his work in Physical Interactive Design with his Grip Maestro electroacoustic performance interface at the NIME conference in Sidney, Australia.

In 2012 Michael began working at Smule Inc. where he currently manages projects with the Artist Production team. 

In 2023 Michael left Smule and is now a professionally job-seeking house-husband.