Michael Carnes

Michael Page Carnes (1950) is an American composer of contemporary classical music. Life and career Carnes was born in North Carolina. The son of a piano teacher, he received his first formal musical training on trumpet in the public schools. He formed and played in several rock bands beginning in the late 1960s. While originally a performer of popular music and jazz, Carnes became interested in classical music and resumed his education. He studied composition under John Bavicchi and Rudi Martinus van Dijk at Berklee College of Music where he received his BA in 1977, John Thow and Theodore Antoniou at Boston University where he received his master’s degree in Music in 1980 and later with Gunther Schuller. His early works were largely built with extended tonality and reflective of jazz. These include a number of guitar etudes. In the years that followed, his music became more strongly chromatic, without an obvious tonal center. Principal works from this period include Fantasy Music 1 (for flute and taped electronic sounds), Fantasy Music 2 (for harpsichord and taped electronic sounds), and Marimba Concerto. An intermediate period included Brass Quintet #2, War Songs (for voice and t