Michael Denis Ó Callaghan (b. 1994) Michael Denis Ó Callaghan is a composer, trumpeter, vocalist, lyricist, and educator with a knack for subverting expectation. Blurring the boundaries between composition and improvisation, his music explores the space between eclectic artistic influences - simultaneously paying homage to musical traditions of the past and moving towards a unique, authentic sound of his own. Michael explores the spectrums between musical dualities: consonance and extreme dissonance, simplicity and complexity, perpetual motion and stillness, detailed notation and free improvisation. Current composition projects include Opportunity, a one-act opera personifying the NASA Mars Rover named Opportunity, and a double album of original music. As a performer, he is working on compiling a repertoire of arrangements, originals, and music by friends.

Michael is a co-founder and co-director of Cmntx Records, a New York City-based label committed to supporting the music and careers of artists who are defining their own craft, without aesthetic or genre limitations.

His music has been performed by JACK Quartet, Quince Contemporary Vocal Ensemble, and Hypercube. He earned his masters degree at New York University where he earned the Paul Simon Scholarship, studied with Caroline Shaw and Michael Gordon and his music was performed by the NYU Orchestra, Contemporary Music Ensemble, Percussion Ensemble, and Composer’s Ensemble. A tenor, Michael studies voice with Rod Nelman. He graduated from the University of Connecticut in 2016 as a jazz studies major studying with Kenneth Fuchs, Louis Hanzlik, Doug Maher, Earl MacDonald, Spencer Hamlin, and Andrew Sorg.

In 2017 he studied composition with Conrad Cummings at the Juilliard School Evening Division. His piece, in Just-, based on the poem by E.E. Cummings, was selected for a concert showcasing the work of Evening Division composition students at Juilliard in April, 2017. He has previously studied trumpet with Scott Wendholt and percussion with Damon Grant.