Resumé

Educational Residencies and Clinics

Resumé

Michael Spiro is an internationally recognized percussionist, recording artist, and educator, known specifically for his work in the Latin music field. He has performed on thousands of records, co-produced and played on several instructional videos for Warner Bros. Publications (including Talking Drums, Changuito, Giovanni Hidalgo, and Ignacio Berroa), and produced seminal recordings in the Latin music genre, including Orquesta Batachanga, Grupo BataKetu, Mark Levine and the Latin Tinge, and Grupo Ilu-Aña.

Michael’s recording and performing credits include such diverse artists as David Byrne, Cachao, The Caribbean Jazz Project, Dori Caymmi, Changuito, Richard Egues, Frank Emilio Flynn, Ella Fitzgerald, David Garibaldi, Gilberto Gil, Giovanni Hidalgo, Ray Holman, Toninho Horta, Bobby Hutcherson, Dr. John, Mark Levine and the Latin Tinge, Machete Ensemble, Bobby McFerrin, Andy Narell, Ray Obiedo, Chico O'Farrill, Eddie Palmieri, Lazaro Ros, David Rudder, Carlos Santana, Grace Slick, Omar Sosa, Talking Drums, Clark Terry, McCoy Tyner and Charlie Watts. In addition, he has recorded soundtracks to such major motion pictures as Soapdish, Henry and June, True Stories, Sworn To The Drum, Walker, Eddie Macon's Run, and Dragon-The Life of Bruce Lee; and wrote several arrangements for the Tony Award winning Broadway show BLAST! which was released on video by PBS in 2002.

His formal education includes a Bachelor's Degree with Honors in Latin American Studies from the University of California, and three and a half years of graduate work in ethnomusicology at the University of Washington. His practical education consists of a seven year apprenticeship with Francisco Aguabella (a relationship which continues today), and extensive study throughout Latin America. He has studied annually in Cuba since 1984 with musicians such as Jose Luis Quintana ("Changuito"), Esteban Vega Bacallao ("Cha-Cha"), Daniel Diaz and Juan "Claro" Blanco of Orquesta Ritmo Oriental, Regino Jimenez, Los Muñequitos de Matanzas, and Grupo Afro-Cuba de Matanzas. In addition, in 1986 he spent two months training at G.R.E.S. Portela, the famous Escola de Samba in Rio de Janeiro.

Michael is a frequent visiting artist at universities worldwide. In addition to the position he held in the Jazz Department at the University of California, Berkeley, he has taught at numerous colleges throughout North America and Europe, and continues to be a presenter at national and statewide conventions of P.A.S. (The Percussive Arts Society) and the I.A.J.E. (International Association of Jazz Educators).

He currently resides in San Francisco, California where he is an integral part of the Bay Area music scene. He records and produces with groups throughout the West Coast, and still tours world-wide with the percussion trio "Talking Drums," which he co-leads with David Garibaldi and Jesus Diaz. In June of 1996, his recoring with Mark Lamson, BataKetu, was released on Bembe Records to international critical acclaim, including being voted one of the top 50 drum records of all time by Drum Magazine. He debuted that material on the stage in 2002 with a performance grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, and in that same year he performed with his own group "Ara Meji" at the Monterey Jazz Festival, where he received the Distinguished Achievement Award in Percussion.

In 2004 he received a Grammy nomination for his work as both producer and artist on Mark Levine’s Latin/Jazz release "Isla", and in 2005 he released "BataMbira", which he wrote and produced with Professor B.Michael Williams. This CD received rave reviews around the world for it's fusion of Afro-Cuban folkloric music with the mbira music of Zimbabwe, and that same year he was voted runner up in the jazz/fusion category in Drum Magazine's Reader's Poll Awards, as he continued to record on a variety of different projects around the country. In 2006 Chuck Sher Publications released his long awaited book,"The Conga Drummer's Guidebook", and it has already become the standard in the field for intermediate/advanced instruction.

He has spent the last two years focusing on his work as a record producer, including the third CD of his charanga band "La Moderna Tradicion" entitled "Encanto", the latest CD of Seattle's Elizabeth Savani with the Orchestra Zarabanda, the soon to be released project of the Brazilian band "Falso Baiano", and the new CD of arguably most creative and exciting Latin/Jazz group of the Bay Area, "Tanaora". The "BataMbira" project has performed around the country, and it debuted to wonderful critical reviews at the November 2007 convention of the Percussion Arts Society in Columbus, Ohio. Of course he continues to be a guest at universities around the country as both artist and lecturer. But most importantly he is Professor of Music in the Percussion Deparment at the renowned Jacobs School of Music, Indiana University.

The beat goes on.......

Educational Residencies, Clinics and Workshops

Michael Spiro is an internationally recognized percussionist who has developed a residency program of workshops and master classes for music students. The residency's curriculum covers the history, development, and performance techniques of Afro-Cuban and Brazilian musics. Spiro not only teaches how to play the music, but emphasizes the cultural context within which the music takes place. Included are participatory activities in Afro-Cuban and Brazilian percussion performance. Activities are adapted to the particular group in attendance.

"Michael... knows how to teach it... giving the reasons for things and the history. He can teach any aspect of Brazilian or Afro-Cuban music that you want. He's one of the most talented guys I've ever met."