BIO

Mike began to study piano at a young age, first from his mother and then another local piano teacher in the small town of Meservey, Iowa, where he grew up. As Mike grew a little older, he studied with Ruth Brose at North Iowa Area Community College and then Chiu Ling Lin at Drake University in Des Moines, IA with whom he studied his last few years of high school as well as received a Bachelor of Music degree from Drake while continuing to study with Ms Lin. 

Mike graduated Magna Cum Laude from Drake in the spring of 1987 and entered a Master of Music program at The New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, MA. At NEC, Mike's primary studies were with Veronica Jochum. Through the conservatory, Mike had many opportunities to learn from some of the finest musicians in the world, including 20th century piano with Stephen Drury, aleatoric composer, John Cage, and microtonal studies with composer, Joseph Maneiri.

After graduation from the conservatory in the spring of 1989, Mike moved to the Twin Cities where he was active as a teacher and performer. For more than a decade and one-half, Mike has been an active teacher, adjudicator, clinician, and workshop leader in private lessons, public school, and colleges. 

In the fall of 1989, Mike began to serve as a pianist/keyboardist at New Hope Church, a megachurch in New Hope, MN working with Bruce Erickson and Pastor Stephen Goold. This part-time role as keyboardist grew quickly and soon Mike was the Associate Minister of Music serving with Daniel Wagner directing and coordinating the instrumental ensembles and contemporary praise bands in addition to administrating a music school that offered music training to children and adults of all ages in most musical disciplines.

In 1999, Michael became the Worship Pastor at Brooklyn Park Evangelical Free Church (Brooklyn Park, MN) and then in 2001, he accepted the call as Worship Arts Pastor at Faith Covenant Church in Burnsville, MN. Currently, Mike is serving as Pastor of Worship at Immanuel Baptist Church in Wausau, WI

In addition to his work in churches, Mike is an active studio musician and performer. His compositions, arrangements and performance can be found in such diverse projects as an international film, regional television shows, and a virtual reality ride simulator. Recently, Mike has produced music for the television show Kent Hrbek Outdoors, featuring former Minnesota Twins All Star 1st Baseman, Kent Hrbek and veteran broadcaster and producer, Eric Gislason. He has also been writing big-band jazz arrangements and contributing to the catalog of a new big-band that made its debut at the 2008 Twin Cities Jazz Festival.

Mike has released six solo projects. The first was a "home-grown" cassette titled This Little Lite of Mine and was released in the spring of 1992. This recording is now out of print. Several of the songs from this recording were rerecorded for his 2006 release Spectrums.

Christmas 1998 was the release of Mike's second project titled Home. Several of the titles of these first two projects were published in Mike's book of piano solos with Lillenas Publishing, titled Impressions of Worship. 

Mike has written many other arrangements including brass ensemble music for the Greater Twin Cities Billy Graham Crusade in 1996, a piano duet in the Lifeway publication Pedal point, and a wide variety of arrangements for solos, ensembles, choir, and big band.

For Christmas 2000 Mike released a Christmas project titled Tapestry of Christmas. A television show featuring performance from this recording was also recorded and this show has been a Twin-Cities area favorite and rebroadcast each year since.

In May 2006, Mike released a CD titled Spectrums. This new project goes back to some of Mike's jazz roots and contains a wide variety of styles, arrangements, and compositions.

Having joined the Chancellors Quartet as pianist in February of '07, Mike has been performing many concerts with them and released his newest CD A Touch of Gospel in September of 2007. This CD features many Gospel favorites and styles ranging from Southern Gospel to Black Gospel and even some Pentecostal and hymn favorites.

Mike had the opportunity to do a lot of arranging for the new Chancellors Quartet release One Way Ticket which came out in May '08. This CD contains three original songs Mike wrote:  Christ Be Beside Me has been actively used as a worship chorus in churches and a recent National Day of Prayer event. Take Me To The Cross and Body of the Lord are the other two original titles by Mike on this recording.

Over the past years, Mike has performed very often with a talented vocal soloist named Angie Gislason. The past couple years, they have sung on a variety of stages. One of their favorite opportunities as been the Holiday Music Festival at The Mall of America. Each of the last two years, they performed four events for the large crowds at the mall during the holiday shopping season. These holiday performances inspired Mike and Angie's latest release titled Christmas at Home. This recording consists of eight songs featuring Angie and six songs featuring Mike on the piano. Two of the songs are originals by Mike: There'd Never Be a Christmas and Hush-a-bye.

Mike lives with his wife, Diane, and their three children in Wausau, WI. The oldest child, Geoffrey, was featured on the piano as a 5 year old on the Tapestry of Christmas CD.  All three children play piano. Geoffrey also plays trombone and drum set. Amanda, the middle child, is also plays clarinet and Lucas is learning drum set and guitar.