From: Celina, Ohio
I started teaching music in… the 1970s
I started teaching at the Conservatory in… 2000
My inspiration: boundary pushers, musical and otherwise
Few people know that I… was listed in a top 25 survey of female bassists https://www.udiscovermusic.com/stories/best-female-bassists/
Education: Ashland University in Ohio – BA in Music Theory
Cleveland State University – MA in Musicology
I play and teach: Guitar, Bass, Ukelele (if requested)
My other artistic/musical endeavors: Pere Ubu-bassist; Both Sides Now the music of Joni Mitchell – guitar accompanist; Urban Iguana Productions – my recording/composing studio; Ebow Quartet; Woman of Heart and Mind, a duo that performs the music of Joni Mitchell
Personal Teaching Statement: I am such a big music fan and I love to share what I know, and work with others that are also music lovers. As everyone has different tastes and objectives, I try to uncover each individuals’ musical interests and help bring whatever information is needed to enable them to play what will bring them joy.
Biography: Michele is a guitarist and electric bassist and sometime producer at her project studio Urban Iguana Productions. She is a long time composing, recording and performing member of international/touring recording artists Pere Ubu. In NYC, Michele has played on Broadway, at Lincoln Center, at The Apollo Theatre, the York Theater, Irondale Theater, 54 Below, Joe’s Pub, the Fringe Festival, CBGBs, and many other locations. Most recently, Michele and Hannah Reimann, her working partner in Woman of Heart and Mind – a Joni Mitchell retrospective, received a City Artist Corp grant that enabled them to perform at the Village Trip festival in September.
Michele’s Master Thesis was published as the academic monograph, “Middle Eastern Influences on Late Medieval Italian Dances: Origins of the 29987 Istampittas,” which won the Dance Perspective Society’s Jose Rollins de la Torre Buena Prize in Dance Literature for most original new book in 2002.
Michele is a long time music instructor at the Brooklyn Conservatory of Music. She counts among her former private students multi-Grammy award winning artist Alicia Keys.