Michael Summers
Michael Summers was born in London in 1973. He began composing at an early age, and also played violin, viola and piano. Studies took him to Cambridge University (1993–1996), then on to the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester for a year’s post-graduate study in composition. Performances of his work while in Manchester include Cross-section for saxophone quartet and Variations on an English Folksong for organ. He also wrote Rigoletto Variations, a 25-minute work for brass band.
Upon leaving Manchester in 1999 he moved to London to take up a post with the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. After this was published in 2001 he started working at the library of the Royal Academy of Music, and in 2005 gained a Masters degree in Library and Information Studies from University College London. In 2008 he wrote two papers on different ways of approaching the organisation of musical styles and genres (details below).
In 2002 his string quartet Folksong Suite was published by S.J. Music, and Cross-section was published by Emerson Edition in 2004. All other works are published by MidsummersdayMusic, his own web-based imprint.
Recent projects include two pieces for the pianist Marcus Andrews (Pianobox, 2008, and Modus operandi, 2010), both of which have been performed by him. Rebel Amendment for violin and piano was performed in the Foundling Museum, London, in 2008 by Cathy Fox and Merel van der Knoop, who had commissioned it. U-Bahn for two violas and violin, commissioned by David Eugene Webb, was completed in 2010.
Michael also play viola in a band with South African composer and songwriter Chris Letcher.
'The genre jungle: organizing pop music recordings', in Radical cataloging: essays at the front, edited by K.R. Roberto (McFarland, 2008), pp.53-68.
'Holidays, industrial, shopping: what production music tells us about how we organise music', in Brio, vol.45, no.2 (autumn-winter 2008), pp.41-45.