Bio

Michael Harley enjoys a diverse career as a teacher, performer, and music advocate. At the University of South Carolina he teaches bassoon and courses in music history and contemporary music, coaches chamber music, and is artistic director of the award-winning Southern Exposure New Music Series. His performances have been called “spectacular” (Washington Post) and “exquisite” (Columbus Dispatch).

A proponent of contemporary music, Mike is a founding member of the multiple Grammy-nominated chamber orchestra Alarm Will Sound, called “new music luminaries” and “one of the most vital and original ensembles on the American musical scene” (New York Times). AWS has served as artists-in-residence at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and done residencies at numerous colleges and universities, including Princeton, Harvard, Duke, MIT, Michigan, Colorado, and Stanford. Mike has worked with and premiered pieces by many of today’s most distinguished composers, including Pulitzer-winners John Adams, John Luther Adams, David Lang, Roger Reynolds, Steve Reich, Tania León, and Charles Wuorinen; as well as Marcos Balter, Rafiq Bhatia, Derek Bermel, Harrison Birtwistle, Donnacha Dennehy, Michael Gordon, Devonté Hynes, Stephen Jaffe, Mary Kouyoumdjian, David T. Little, Meredith Monk, Nico Muhly (soloist in the world premiere of his concerto for bassoon and wind ensemble), Michael Pisaro, Wolfgang Rihm, John Fitz Rogers, Kate Soper, Tyshawn Sorey, Augusta Read Thomas, Ken Ueno, and Daniel Wohl. A versatile musician, he has been featured as a soloist with AWS both as a bassoonist and singer. He has recorded on the Nonesuch, Cantaloupe, New Amsterdam, New Focus, Innova, Centaur, and Sweetspot record labels; his solo CD, Come Closer (New Focus, 2019), includes premiere recordings of music by John Fitz Rogers, Fang Man, Carl Schimmel, Caleb Burhans, Jesse Jones, Reginald Bain, and Stefan Freund.

 As a recitalist, chamber, and orchestral musician, Mike has played in diverse venues on five continents, ranging from nightclubs and bars (Le Poisson Rouge and the Roxy in NYC) to Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, Walt Disney Concert Hall, the Barbican (London), Musiekgebouw aan ‘t IJ (Amsterdam), Town Hall in Johannesburg, South Africa, Glinka Hall (Moscow) and the Hermitage Theatre (St. Petersburg); and with artists including the indie rock group Dirty Projectors, the jazz trio Medeski, Martin and Wood, Dance Heginbotham, Mark Morris, Toshi Reagon, Eartheater, King Britt, Nathalie Joachim, Iarla Ó Lionáird, and the orchestras of Charleston, Columbus, Fort Wayne, South Bend, Augusta, the South Carolina Philharmonic, and the Long Bay Symphony (Myrtle Beach). Festivals and conference performances include Lucca Opera Theater (Italy), Piccolo Spoleto, Music on the Hill Rhode Island, Mizzou New Music, Kent Blossom, the International College Music Society, and the International Double Reed Society. Mike is founder and co-director of the NewBassoon Institute, and has served on the faculty of the Interlochen Arts Camp (MI) and the Saarburger Serenaden International Music Festival and School (Germany). He is currently faculty mentor in bassoon for the National Music Festival in Chestertown, MD.

Mike has degrees from the Eastman School of Music (D.M.A.), where he was awarded the Performer’s Certificate, the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music (M.M.), and Goshen College (B.A., English and music). His bassoon teachers include John Hunt, William Winstead, Gwendolyn Rose, Sharon Trent, and Eric Kuehner.  He lives in Columbia, SC with his wife, flutist Jennifer Parker-Harley, and is the proud father of two daughters, Ella and Lucia.