Michael O'Neill

Michael O’Neill is a composer/performer originally from the Shaganappi Escarpment area near the south bank of the Bow River in Calgary, Alberta. Following studies in music composition in Calgary, he studied with Gilles Tremblay in Montréal, and Martin Bartlett, Rudolf Komorous and Barry Truax in Vancouver. He has written works for Vancouver’s Gamelan Madu Sari, Uzume Taiko, Silk Road Music, bass clarinetist Lori Freedman, Winnipeg’s Stirling Pipe Band, poet Sheri-D Wilson, Simon Fraser University Pipe Band, Toronto's Evergreen Club Contemporary Gamelan, Karen Jamieson Dance Co., Maja Gender Ensemble and the Mearingstone Pipe Band, his own 'New Music' bagpipe ensemble. Areas of collaboration include performance poetry, dance, mime, and ventriloquism.

Over the years he has composed a series of works for bagpipes, including: Jedaya, commissioned by the SFU Pipe Band; Metaforest and Field for the Evergreen Club Gamelan and harmonically adapted bagpipes; and Luffness, a collaboratively composed work for Uzume Taiko and the Mearingstone Pipe Band. He was awarded a Canada Council 'Specialized Music Sound Recording Grant' to produce a recording of four works from this series. They were recently recorded and released (2005-2006) on an album called Ontophony.

Michael has been active performing with and composing for Gamelan instruments. He was an active (and founding) member of the Vancouver Community Gamelan playing both Javanese gamelan (Gamelan Madu Sari and the chamber group Alligator Joy), and Balinese gender wayang (the Batel Ensemble). He is currently a member of Maja Gender, a gender wayang quartet which specializes in new music. His work Lessons of the Garden: Gateway, Path, Waterway, is included on Gamelan Madu Sari's recently released CD 'New Nectar'.

http://www.songlines.com/ontophonycontent.html