Michael Mulcahy
Chicago
Symphony Orchestra trombonist Michael Mulcahy has appeared as soloist
and teacher in the United States, Canada, Europe, Russia, Japan,
Argentina, New Zealand, and Australia; and as soloist with the CSO and
Daniel Barenboim, as well as the Bavarian Radio Symphony, the Hilversum
Radio Symphony, and the Melbourne Symphony.
Michael is the winner of several international
competitions, among them the Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Instrumental Competition, the ARD International Music Competition in
Munich, the Viotti International Competition in Italy, and the
International Instrumental Competition in the former East German city of
Markneukirchen.
Active as a member of the Chicago Chamber Musicians,
his work also includes collaborations with Barenboim, Boulez, Joseph
Silverstein, Christoph Eschenbach, William Bolcom, and Yo-Yo Ma, as well
as appearances at Chamber Music Northwest and the Grand Teton Music
Festival, where he has conducted for many years. He has worked with the
world’s most prominent composers, including John Adams, Elliott Carter,
Luciano Berio, Iannis Xenakis, Olivier Messian, Krzysztof Penderecki,
and as a member of Karl-Heinz Stockhausen’s performance ensemble.
Sir Georg Solti appointed Michael Mulcahy to the
Chicago Symphony Orchestra in 1989. He also is Principal Trombone of
Chicago’s Music of the Baroque and the Grand Teton Music Festival. His
orchestral career began in 1976 as Principal Trombone of the Tasmanian
Symphony. A year later, he attained the same chair with the Melbourne
Symphony. He left Australia in 1981 to pursue a career in Europe, where
he became Solo Trombone with the Cologne Radio Symphony.
He was Head of Brass of the Canberra School of Music
at the Australian National University in 1987. In 1999, he was appointed
Professor of Music at Northwestern University. He also has been an
artist-in-residence at Indiana University and Wiley Housewright Scholar
at Florida State University, and he regularly appears at universities
worldwide. Mulcahy has taught and conducted at Daniel Barenboim’s
West-Eastern Divan Workshop for young Arab and Israeli musicians in
Seville, Spain.
Michael Mulcahy’s interest in conducting was sparked
by an invitation from West German Radio in 1987. Since then, he has been
active in conducting a wide variety of works with an emphasis on the
twentieth century. In 1988, he formed the Canberra School of Music
Chamber Players and the Orchestral Repertoire Ensemble at Australian
National University. Shortly thereafter he was appointed assistant
conductor of the Canberra Symphony Orchestra. He toured Japan as guest
conductor at the International Youth Musicale in Shizouka and Denmark
for the Royal Danish Orchestra in Copenhagen. He also has worked as an
assistant for the Civic Orchestra of Chicago. He has conducted for Music
of the Millennium and composer-perspective festivals at the Museum of
Contemporary Art, served as music director for National Music Camp in
Australia, and he regularly leads the Chicago Chamber Musicians.
Michael Mulcahy was born in Sydney, Australia. He
began studying trombone with his father Jack Mulcahy, and completed his
studies with Baden McCarron of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and with
Geoffrey Bailey at the State Conservatorium of New South Wales.