Sky Island Chamber Musicians
Tucson's Finest Classical Musicians
Upcoming ConcertsSky Island Brass and percussion spectacular! Michael Mulcahy conductor Friday, May 23rd, 8pm St . Mark's United Methodist Church 1431 W. Magee Rd. Tucson, AZ ( corner of Magee and La Canada)
Saturday, May 24th, 8 pm Grace St. Paul's Episcopal Church 2331 E ADAMS ST Brass Concert Program
admission$15, Students,$5 phone(520)322-0423skyislandmusicians@gmail.com
sponsored by the Becker FoundationSICM foundersMichael Becker
Michael Becker is currently Principal Trombonist with the Tucson Symphony Orchestra. Prior to this appointment, he held positions in the orchestras of Savannah and Honolulu. He has performed on both Tenor and Bass Trombone throughout the U. S. and abroad, including with the London Symphony Orchestra, the St. Louis Symphony, the Lyric Opera Orchestra of Chicago, the “World Orchestra”, an all-star orchestra created by the late Sir Georg Solti, the New York Philharmonic and with Yo Yo Ma’s “Silk Road Ensemble”. Mr. Becker also has strong associations with the Chicago and Detroit Symphonies, having performed, toured and recorded extensively with these orchestras. Summers, he has been a member of the Grand Teton Music Festival in Jackson, Wyoming, the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music in Santa Cruz, California, the Alpen Brass at the Strings in the Mountains summer music festival in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, and the Cascade Festival of Music in Bend, Oregon. Mr. Becker has taught at theUniversity of Hawaii, and at the University of Arizona as adjunct professor of Trombone. In 2005, Mr. Becker launched his Low Brass Boot Camp in Tucson, Arizona. This one- week session is an intense course focusing on solo performance, orchestral excerpts, ensemble playing, and audition preparation.
| The name Sky Island Chamber Musicians was inspired by the mountains of Southern Arizona. Called “sky islands”, the mountains are rich with an unexpected diversity of plants and animals. When the Sonoran desert was a sea, its islands were separate ecosystems, resulting in an unusually wide diversity for such a small geographic area. Sky Island Chamber Musicians was formed by Michael Becker and Shawn Campbell, members of the Tucson Symphony Orchestra, in 2004. They created this group with the vision of bringing together the finest classical musicians in Southern Arizona to perform rarely heard chamber music. Music performed by Sky Island Chamber Musicians uses voices from the different instrument families: brass, woodwinds, strings and percussion, in contemporary and classic works.
| Special guest conductor, Chicago Symphony Orchestra Trombonist, Michael Mulcahy
Internationally recognized Chicago Symphony Trombonist Michael Mulcahy has appeared as a soloist and teacher in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Ireland, Germany, Holland, Italy, Sweden, Denmark, Russia, Japan, China, Argentina New Zealand and Australia. He has appeared as a soloist with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Bavarian Radio Symphony, Hilversum Radio Symphony, Auckland Symphony, Queensland Symphony, Tasmanian 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 Markneukirchen, in the former East Germany.
Sir Georg Solti appointed Michael Mulcahy to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in 1989. He is Principal Trombone with 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. Michael left Australia in 1981 to pursue his career in Europe where he became Solo Trombone with the Cologne Radio Symphony Orchestra.
He was named Senior Lecturer 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 has also been an Artist in Residence at Indiana University, and Wiley Housewright Scholar at Florida State University, and regularly appears at universities worldwide. He has taught and conducted at Daniel Barenboim’s East West Divan workshop for young Arab and Israeli musicians in Seville.
Michael Mulcahy was born in Sydney, Australia. He began studying the Trombone with his father, Jack Mulcahy and completed his studies with Baden McCarron of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, and Geoffrey Bailey at the State Conservatorium of New South Wales.
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