Looking Ahead: a Major New Work

Hi friends,

Popping in one last time before the end of the year to share with you an early 2024 happening that I’ve been sitting on for a while:

ProMusica Detroit has commissioned me to compose a major new work

Another Shore, Another Country: a song set based on the poetry of seminal Greek-Alexandrian poet C.P. Cavafy.

• Rising star baritone Constantine Novotny is premiering this piece alongside myself at the piano

• San Fransisco-based flautist and director of the Greek Chamber Music Project Ellie Falaris Ganelin will perform songs by legendary Greek composer Mikis Theodorakis, alongside Constantine and myself

• I’ll perform my solo piano composition Hold Tightly Your Vision of How Things Could Be (a piece which also recently got me thinking about my personal relationship to Hellenism)

• And we’ll also hear some lovely chamber selections by Prokofiev, Tchaikovsky, and Korngold

Why Cavafy?

If you’re familiar with Cavafy’s poetry, the answer is probably self evident — it seems that to know Cavafy is to love Cavafy. And if you’re not familiar, I’m so excited to be able to introduce you to his rare genius. As perhaps the most consequential Greek poet of the 20th century, Cavafy’s poetry embodies many things: he is enigmatic, private, urgent, personal, queer, and transgressive. He deals in the magnitude of myth, but his writing is grounded in the minutiae of the present. He is diasporic, global, and transcendent — carrying with him ghosts, ancestors, and wisdom.

But don’t take my word for it. Read Cavafy’s words yourself:

Body, remember not only how much you were loved,
not only the beds on which you lay,
but also those desires which for you
plainly glowed in the eyes,
and trembled in the voice -- and some
chance obstacle made them futile.
Now that all belongs to the past,
it is almost as if you had yielded
to those desires too -- remember,
how they glowed, in the eyes looking at you;
how they trembled in the voice, for you, remember, body.

Body, Remember (C.P. Cavafy)

Writing music to his poetry is a dream come true. It’s given me a chance to reconnect with my Greek heritage and allowed me to live in the “sumptuous mausoleum” of Cavafy’s works. I’ve been dreaming about this project for years, and telling anybody who would listen that this was one of my biggest dreams.

I can’t wait to share it with you. If you’re local, I’d really love to see you there. If you’re not local, I think it will be live streamed (definitely recorded.)

Happy Holidays and Happy New Year to you all. Wishing you all peace, health, safety, and thriving in the Earth’s next revolution.

-Michael

Two Good Ones To Close 2023

Friends,

Popping in to share with you my two final performances of 2023. One in Detroit and one in Cambridge MA (with a livestream link.) Both are going to be special.

TONIGHT (Wednesday December 6) see Harvard University’s Contemporary Chamber Music Final Concert, where you can hear their performance of my piece Nourishment, under the directorship of Prof. Claire Chase. If you’re local to the Boston area, you can go and hear it in person — for everyone else, there’s a livestream (link below.) Also on the program: Kaija Saariaho, Christopher Stark, and Felix Treiber. It’s an honor be included amongst such incredible company!

Contemporary Chamber Music: Final Concert for Music 186
December 6, 8:00pm
John Knowles Paine Concert Hall
3 Oxford St, Cambridge, MA 02138
Free

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On Friday December 8, join Balance at The Congregation (Detroit) as we support our friends Yimes (John Mark Hanson, Andrew Taetz) on their record release tour. Their music is spacious and dreamy, and this show will be a balm. Link to preorder tickets below.

Note: this is Balance’s last show of 2023, and it’s also my last performance of 2023. If you’re local, it would be a pleasure to spend some time with you.

YIMES album release concert with Balance
December 8, doors at 7:30pm
The Congregation
9321 Rosa Parks Blvd, Detroit, MI 48206
$10-15

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2023 has been a doozy — on the heels of 2 record releases in 2022, I spent more time performing than I had in a long time. This included a big tour for Balance (a 7 show tour is big for me), performances at festivals, local shows, radio appearances, and more. Balance’s record Conjure sold out of its first pressing. My record with Virago, From Darkness We Awaken, charted on a college radio station for a brief moment. I had really fun and successful shows with my trio, and some very satisfying solo performances.

I was lucky to have a chance to create new music — my large ensemble composition In Search of Softer Selves was premiered at Edgiest in Ann Arbor with support from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts. My collaborative piece Retreat for organ and French Horn with Zara Teicher was presented as part of my concert series Other Tones.

And I grew into a new role as an educator, taking on the position of Visiting Instructor of Jazz Piano at Interlochen Arts Academy.

2024 is going to be a big one, too. I have some exciting announcements coming up, and I hope you stay with me on this journey.

I say all this to say: I don’t take any of these opportunities lightly. I’m incredibly privileged to be doing what I’m doing. Thank you for your support. I hope you find some comfort, joy, and understanding in the music I make.

Wishing you peace, health, and fullness as we close this year, and as we move into the next one,

-Michael

Other Tones This Weekend; Rare Joys; Reflections

Friends,

If you’re local to Detroit and your nervous system needs a reset, consider joining myself and Zara Teicher tomorrow. RETREAT, collaborative performance in four parts:

I. Resign
II. Realign
III. Reseed/Recede
IV. Repeat

We’ve been planning this one for almost a year, and dreaming of it for much longer. We’ve been feeling the sounds melt into our bones during rehearsals in the lush reverb of St. Anthony’s Cathedral. I want you to feel that, too.

Saturday November 11 3:00pm
St. Anthony’s Catholic Cathedral
5247 Sheridan St., Detroit MI
$10

Michael Malis: pipe organ, piano, melodica
Zara Teicher: French horn, harmonium, melodica

Tickets available at the door, or you can preorder at the link below:

Earlier this week,

I had the distinct honor of giving a masterclass to Harvard University’s New Music Ensemble. They are performing my piece Nourishment under the direction of Prof. Claire Chase, the groundbreaking flutist and cultural icon. The students performed the piece with incredible precision and heart, and had insightful questions and reflections. Spending an hour with them was a rare joy.

They’ll be performing it on a concert in December, and I can’t wait to hear the final result.

In other recent news,

I was asked to write an article for the online journal Ergon: Greek/American & Diaspora Arts and Letters. It’s a peer-reviewed journal that promotes the arts, letters, and scholarship of Greek/America.

I was asked to contribute a piece of music that speaks to my position as a member of the Greek diaspora, and write an essay reflecting on it. I decided to use my solo piano composition, Hold Tightly Your Vision of How Things Could Be, as the lens through which to view this prompt. The piece was initially composed in response to the political upheaval that ensued when Roe V. Wade was overturned. I use that moment as a jumping off point to reflect on the Greek diaspora, my personal history, and my musical objectives.

Thanks to the patient and careful editing of Dr. Yona Stamatis, I’m really pleased with how this essay came out.

You can read it below, while listening to the music and taking a look at the score.

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I write you today with love, peace, anger, fear, joy, longing, and sadness in my heart. I wish I had inspiring words to share, but instead I find myself paralyzed by grief. Right now I’m working on holding my community close, allowing room for sorrow, cultivating peace, and modeling radical belonging. It feels both monumentally challenging and woefully insignificant.

Sending you all love,

-Michael

Two Performances of Brand New Music

Friends,

If you have the luxury — or the need — to hear music in the upcoming weeks, I’m grateful to have some good ones on the way.

My new piece In Search of Softer Selves features an all-star lineup of Detroit’s finest musicians and was commissioned by Edgefest, Kerrytown Concert House’s annual festival of avant-garde jazz. It was also generously supported by the Foundation for Contemporary Arts.

The band is pictured below: from L-R, Marcus Elliot, Allen Dennard, myself, Zekkereya El-magharbel, Wendell Harrison, Ben Willis, Marion Hayden, Jonathan Barahal Taylor, Kaleigh Wilder, Vincent Chandler.

Saturday October 21, Bethlehem UCC, 423 S. 4th Ave., Ann Arbor, MI 48104

$17-34 for just the evening; $75 for a whole day pass

Then, in November, immerse yourself in what Zara Teicher and I have been devising. Retreat, a concert-length collaborative work that invites us (and you) to step into the sound and out of the world for about an hour. At the majestic St. Anthony’s Catholic Cathedral on Detroit’s east side. A production of my concert series, Other Tones.

Many of us are walking through these days with heavy hearts. Music is wholly insufficient for this moment. In spite of that, if you’re in the right frame of mind for it, I’d be so grateful to share your company.

Take care of yourselves, friends. I love you all, and I pray for your safety, thriving, and freedom; for soft hearts, loving awareness, and joyful noises; for your shrewd insights and diffuse wisdoms; for your lives.

With love,

-Michael

Upcoming: Detroit Jazz Festival and Strange Beautiful Music

Hey Friends,

Sad to say, but it seems like another summer is quickly passing us by. If you’re in the Detroit area, come celebrate the summer that was and the autumn that will be at these two incredible festivals:

Balance @ the Detroit Jazz Festival

My collaborative duo with saxophonist Marcus Elliot, Balance, will be performing at the Detroit Jazz Festival this weekend. Featuring music from our latest record Conjure and fresh off a summer tour, we’re excited to be back in Detroit to share this music.

Saturday September 2
Absopure Waterfront Stage
5:10 pm (note the time change)
Free

With Virago at Strange Beautiful Music

Strange Beautiful Music, the annual festival from New Music Detroit, is upon us. Amidst an incredible lineup, I’m thrilled to say that I’ll be performing with my friends in Virago. We’ll be playing my piece From Darkness We Awaken, which we premiered at the Detroit Institute of Arts just over a year ago. Also on the program is Harriet Steinke’s Listening For Bells. I can’t wait.

Saturday September 9
Detroit Symphony Orchestra (The Cube)
10:00pm
Tickets: $25-50 (but use code “StudentSBM16” for 50% off!)

Much more coming this Fall, including two world premieres and a nice run of shows with my trio. More on that soon. Thanks, as always, for your attention and support.

In gratitude,

-Michael