Biography

Drawing audiences deeply into the art of sound.

Michael Clayville is a GRAMMY®-winning musician passionate about drawing audiences deeply into the art of sound. As a trombone soloist, chamber musician, and improviser, his work has taken him to prestigious venues around the world — Carnegie Hall, Walt Disney Concert Hall, the Barbican (London), the Muziekgebouw aan ‘t IJ (Amsterdam) — and brought him into collaborations with some of the most prominent classical and popular artists of the moment, including Pulitzer Prize–winning composers Steve Reich, Tyshawn Sorey, John Luther Adams, Charles Wuorinen, and David Lang, alongside experimental groups like Medeski Martin and Wood and the Dirty Projectors.

Alarm Will Sound

Michael is a founding member of Alarm Will Sound, whose adventurous work has earned international acclaim, including the ensemble’s recent GRAMMY nomination for its recording of Donnacha Dennehy’s Land of Winter. The group, awarded the ASCAP Concert Music Award for “the virtuosity, passion and commitment with which they perform and champion the repertory for the 21st century,” has been called the “future of classical music” by The New York Times. In addition to performing as the ensemble’s trombonist, Michael also serves as its Director of Marketing.

Recording & range

As a recording artist Michael can be heard on Nonesuch Records, Decca, Cantaloupe Records, Klavier, and Mark Records. Committed to expanding what it means to be a 21st-century musician, his work often takes him beyond the concert hall and into the broader community, frequently incorporating extra-musical elements including movement, lighting, and video.

Teaching

Michael serves on faculty at Lawrence University, where he teaches courses on entrepreneurship and innovation, directs the New Music Ensemble, and coaches chamber ensembles. He previously spent seven years in south central Pennsylvania teaching at Dickinson College and Messiah College.

Education

Michael holds a master’s from Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music (with David Waters) and a bachelor’s from the Eastman School of Music (with John Marcellus). His earliest formative teacher was James Erdman, a former soloist with the President’s Own Marine Band who emphasized the performer’s responsibility to communicate the thoughts of the composer.

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A little personal

The story behind the bio

I’m drawn to sound and music for their ability to evoke emotion. It astounded me when I was four — and still does — that “noise,” and particularly arrangements of noise, can produce strong feelings. I began playing the trombone in fourth grade after deciding it was the strangest of the instruments. It looked more like plumbing than an instrument, the whole scene made even funnier with the player moving their arm back and forth.

After Eastman I spent three years playing with the Monumental Brass Quintet in Washington DC, a dinner theater in Lancaster, PA, and Alarm Will Sound. Times were tough but I learned a lot about performing, organization, and the business of music. When an opportunity arose to go to graduate school with three friends as part of NOVUS, a trombone quartet, I jumped. NOVUS became the first trombone quartet to ever be in residence at the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival; we won the International Trombone Association’s Quartet Competition in 2004; and when we attended the Shepherd School of Music at Rice, we became their first-ever brass ensemble in residence. NOVUS commissioned twelve new works for trombone quartet from Chris Brubeck, Mike Davis, Michaela Eremiasova, George Thatcher, and others.

Since Rice I’ve focused my energy on Alarm Will Sound and my teaching at Lawrence. As a member of AWS I’ve premiered works by John Adams, John Luther Adams, King Britt, Donnacha Dennehy, Aaron Jay Kernis, David T. Little, Roger Reynolds, David Lang, Tyshawn Sorey, and many others, and have performed at Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, Walt Disney Concert Hall, the Barbican in London, the Muziekgebouw in Amsterdam, the Kitchen, the Whitney Museum, and other venues around the world.

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