Michael Compitello appointed to Cornell University faculty

Michael Compitello ’09MM, ’12MMA has been appointed Interim Lecturer in Percussion at Cornell University, where he will direct Cornell’s percussion ensembles—the Cornell University Steel Band and the World Drum and Dance Ensemble—and coordinate the school’s percussion department.

This fall, Compitello is also Interim Lecturer in Percussion at UMass Amherst, where he teaches private lessons and directs the school’s percussion ensemble.

An advocate for new expressions in music and art, Michael Compitello has worked with composers David Lang, John Luther Adams, Martin Bresnick, Helmut Lachenmann, Alejandro Viñao, and Marc Applebaum on premieres and performances of new works, and has performed as a chamber musician and soloist in such diverse locations as the Darmstadt Summer Course, the Banff Centre, and the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival.

With his duo New Morse Code, Michael strives to present bold, engaging performances of new works while catalyzing collaboration with instrumentalists, actors, dancers, and visual artists.  In March 2012, New Morse Code worked with a team of artistic collaborators from the Yale Schools of Music and Drama to create Basement Hades: Songs of the Underworld, a cross-genre musical drama hailed as “stunningly moving” during its sold-out run at the Yale Cabaret.

From 2009 to 2010, Michael performed and studied contemporary chamber music with the Ensemble Modern and the International Ensemble Modern Academy in Frankfurt, Germany on a Fulbright Grant from the US Department of State.