Chicago Symphony trombonist Michael Mulcahy has appeared as a soloist and teacher in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Ireland, Germany, Holland, Italy, Sweden, Denmark, Russia, Japan, Argentina, New Zealand, and Australia. He has appeared as a soloist with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Pierre Boulez in music of Elliot Carter, and most recently with Daniel Barenboim in Leopold Mozart's Concerto for Alto Trombone, which was also broadcast widely on public television. Other solo appearances include the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Hilversum Radio Symphony Orchestra, and on tour with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra.
Michael is the winner of several international competitions, among them the Australian Broadcasting Corporation Instrumental Competition, the ARD International Music Competition in Munich, the Viotti International Competition in Italy, and the International Instrumental Competition in Markneukirchen, in the former East Germany.
He is very active as a member of the Chicago Chamber Musicians, and his work includes collaborations with Daniel Barenboim, Pierre Boulez, Joseph Silverstein, Christoph Eschenbach, William Bolcom and Yo-Yo Ma, and appearances at Chamber Music Northwest and the Grand Teton Music Festival. He has worked with the world's most prominent composers, including Elliot Carter, Luciano Berio, Iannis Xenakis, Olivier Messian, Krzysztof Penderecki, and as a member of Karl-Heinz Stockhausens' Performance Ensemble.
Sir Georg Solti appointed Michael Mulcahy to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in 1989. He is principal trombone with Chicago's Music of the Baroque and the Grand Teton Music Festival. His orchestral career began in 1976 as principal trombone of the Tasmanian Symphony. A year later he attained the same chair with the Melbourne Symphony. Michael left Australian 1981 to pursue his career in Europe where he became Solo Trombone with the Cologne Radio Symphony Orchestra.
He was named Senior Lecturer of the Canberra School of Music at the Australian National University in 1987. In 1999 he was appointed Professor of Music at Northwestern University. He has also been an artist in residence at Indiana University, and Wiley Housewright Scholar at Florida State University, and regularly appears at universities worldwide. Mulcahy teaches at Daniel Barenboim's West-Eastern Divan Workshop for young Arab and Israeli musicians in Seville.
Michael Mulcahy's interest in conducting was sparked by an invitation from Westdeutscher Rundfunk to direct a concert of music of Arvo Pärt in 1987. Since then he has been active conducting a wide variety of works with an emphasis on the 20th century. In 1988 he formed the Canberra School of Music Chamber Players and the Orchestral Repertoire Ensemble at the Australian National University. He toured Japan as guest conductor at the International Youth Musicale in Shizouka and Denmark for the Royal Danish Orchestra in Copenhagen. Mr. Mulcahy has worked as an assistant for the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, the training orchestra for the Chicago Symphony, most notably preparing Stravinsky's Rite of Spring for Daniel Barenboim and Bartók's Miraculous Mandarin for Pierre Boulez. He has conducted for Music of the Millennium and Composer Perspective festivals at the Museum of Contemporary Art, served as music director for National Music Camp in Australia, and regularly conducts for the Chicago Chamber Musicians. For 15 years he has conducted at the Grand Teton Music Festival in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.
Michael Mulcahy was born in Sydney, Australia. He began studying the trombone with his father, Jack Mulcahy and completed his studies with Baden McCarron of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, and Geoffrey Bailey at the State Conservatorium of New South Wales. Everyone in Michael's family is a musician.
The Mulcahy family is a family of musicians. Michael's wife, Gabrielle Webster, is an active professional horn player in Chicago; daughter Lauren studied violin through high school and is currently pursuing a degree in education at Northern Illinois University. His son, Patrick, is completing a degree in jazz at Roosevelt University and appearing frequently around Chicago, most notably with the quartet Information Superhighway. As a family, the Mulcahys love exploring the wilderness of America's West, the magnificent beaches of Sydney, and the solitude of their beloved Lake Glenmaggie.
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