Michael Kerbeykian-Mikulka's music has been performed throughout the United States and abroad, including by members of the New York Philharmonic, Cleveland Symphony Orchestra, and Dallas Symphony Orchestra, by performance faculty at universities across the country, and by founding members of the Canadian Brass and the Kronos Quartet. Michael has been named a winner or finalist 33 times in composition contests and calls for scores. He teaches Music Theory, Ear Training, Composition, and Horn at Austin Community College and teaches private horn lessons in Pflugerville ISD.
Michael completed his DMA in
Composition at the University of
Texas, where his primary teachers were Donald Grantham and Yevgeniy Sharlat. He completed his MM in Composition at Central
Michigan University, where he studied with David Gillingham, and he received his undergraduate degree in Music Education
from
Rutgers University.
As a horn player, Michael has studied with Pat
Hughes, Douglas
Lundeen, and Amy Larkey-Emelianoff. While pursuing his doctoral degree, Michael performed as a
member of the University of Texas Symphony Orchestra, Wind
Ensemble, and Horn
Choir. He frequently performs solo and chamber compositions
by living composers, including the October 2018 premiere of David
Carlton Adams' "Concerto for Horn and Chamber Orchestra".
Michael has been selected as a clinician and contributing artist at
several conferences, including the 54th, 55th, and 56th International
Horn Symposiums. His book A Practical Method for Horn Multiphonics has been widely praised by new music experts and brass pedagogues, and his Horn Quarter-Tone Fingering Chart is widely utilized by horn players.
In March of 2013, Michael created New Band Music,
a composer advocacy site which promotes self-published wind ensemble
works written by "emerging" composers for free. He was the founder and conductor of
the Vine
Orchestra, which resulted in
the premiere of more than 50 (six-second or less) compositions.
Michael
is also a reasonably-competent trumpeter, and he plays duduk with
Bereket Middle-Eastern Ensemble and Viva Palestina Orchestra. Michael
is half Armenian and hopes that his cooking and duduk-playing abilities
at least partially offset his blond hair and toddler-like grasp of the
Armenian language. Michael
grew up in rural New Jersey (it exists). After a childhood that
consisted
primarily of playing sports and catching literally tens of thousands of
fish, he now spends much of his free time cooking,
reading, and following intersectional feminists on Twitter. Michael remains a fan of
the New York Mets and Boston Red Sox (and whatever team is playing the Yankees).
His favorite league to watch is the NBA, but he has been rooting for
individual players rather than teams ever since the Nets moved out of
NJ.