Biography

Mikael Karlsson was born in Halmstad, Sweden in 1975. In 2000 he moved to New York City to pursue an academic path in classical composition and has since studied classical piano with concert pianist and recording artist Donald Pirone.

He has studied composition with Dr. Edward Smaldone (2001-2002) and is currently studying with composers Bruce Saylor and Jeff Nichols. Many of his pieces have been performed in New York, and his music is on the soundtrack of films by acclaimed experimental film makers Barbara Hammer (History Lessons, 2001 - an Official Sundance Selection that year) and Christopher Young (Orpheus and Eurydice 2001 - released by Please Records as a separate soundtrack cd). He is currently scoring Christopher Young's next feature "Dolores".

Mikael is the recipient of the Verdandi Cultural Achievement award (1996), The Aaron Copland School of Music Award to and Outstanding Student (twice - 2001, 2002), The Gabriel Fontrier Award in Composition (three times - 2001, 2002 and 2004), The Anna Whitlock Culture Award (2002), The Karol Rathaus Memorial Award in Composition (2003) and the Mark Kyrkostas Award in Composition (2003). In 2003, he was selected to become a member of the national honor society Phi Beta Kappa.

Mikael is an adjunct professor of music theory, sight-singing, keyboard harmony and dictation at the Aaron Copland School of Music in New York. Privately, he teaches piano, composition, music theory, analysis, dictation, sight-singing and music history.

Mikael is a founding member of Please MusicWorks, a collective of five classically trained composers and more than 100 professional musicians, with the common goal to return live performers to soundtracks and theater stages.
- IMDb mini biography by: Mikael Karlsson