Michael Torke – News

Following up on the incredible success of his recording of Being Michael Torke has released a new work on Ecstatic Records, Psalms and Cancticles. Featuring the talented singer Lydia Brown, this promises to be a new major work in Torke’s catalogue. The study score is available for purchase here.

Michael Torke’s Sky, performed by violinist Tessa Lark and the Albany Symphony (David Alan Miller, conductor) was nominated for a 2020 Grammy Award as Best Classical Instrumental Solo. Sky was also selected as a finalist for the 2020 Pulitzer Prize in Music. Torke’s ground-breaking work fuses bluegrass with his unique original musical voice to create a […]

Michael Torke’s new piano concerto, Three Manhattan Bridges, will be premiered by the Albany Symphony on December 19, with Joyce Yang as soloist. Torke performed as soloist in his first piano concerto in 1994, which was also premiered by the Albany Symphony with David Alan Miller as conductor. Torke talks about the association with Albany: […]

Believing that the creation of art should mark every special occasion, OPERA America commissioned the OPERA America Songbook in celebration of the opening of the National Opera Center in September 2012. Composers with strong ties to the organization were invited to write a song for voice and piano on the theme of opening a new […]

On October 5, the Quad City Symphony gave the premiere of a new concert opener by veteran orchestra composer, Michael Torke. Led by music director Mark Russell Smith, the concert was followed by a second performance in Augustana College’s Centennial Hall a day later. According to Torke: Oracle was composed in a burst of creative […]

This year’s National Flute Association Convention saw the premiere of Michael Torke’s Daffodils for flute and piano. Commissioned by Emily Skala for the occasion of Bonnie Boyd’s “Lifetime Achievement Award” Tribute Concert, it was premiered on August 12, 2012, in Las Vegas, Nevada as part of the NFA’s annual convention. The title refers to Shakespeare’s […]

The band world constantly embraces new literature, but there is a surprising dearth of strong works for the earlier grades. To meet that demand, Michael Torke has created The Torque Series. Each work in this series is approximately 4 minutes long, at a grade 4 difficulty level, yet still filled with the color and vitality […]