Mike's Journey
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MIke's journey with the piano began as a four-year-old with his mother as his first teacher. In the summer leading to his sophomore year of high school, He began studying piano with Chiu Ling Lin, who was a piano professor at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa. (click here for video) He continued to study with Chiu Ling Lin while pursuing a Bachelor of Music degree in piano performance and pedagogy. After graduating from Drake, Mike continued studies with Veronica Jochum at The New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, Massachusetts. Through the conservatory, he had many opportunities to learn from some of the finest musicians in the world, including studying 20th century piano with Stephen Drury and performing for and with the pioneer in aleatoric music, John Cage. He also had the privilege of studying microtonal composition and performance with Joseph Maneri.
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Mike graduated with a Master of Music degree in piano performance from the conservatory. From Boston, moved to Minneapolis, Minnesota and taught private and class piano, improvisation, and M.I.D.I.. He had the privilege of teaching at the summer piano institute at University of Northwestern in St. Paul, Minnesota for several years. His musical and career focus took a turn to the church and he spent many years serving in churches large and small as instrumental director, and worship pastor. Currently, Mike teaches classical, jazz, and class piano at the Wausau Conservatory of Music.
Our Family
We have a family of musicians! Geoffrey plays tuba and bass and can be found playing a wide variety of other instruments from mandolin to drum set. He produces electronic and ambient music under the name Silverphase. Click here for his music and compositions. He is a worship leader with a ministry called Cru and has performed throughout the country with them. Amanda plays a variety of clarinets, saxophones, sings, and is a good sound engineer. She has received several awards for her compositions. Lucas, plays drum set and percussion as well as sings and plays piano. His primary love is jazz music and he is busy gigging throughout Wisconsin with many different groups both jazz and rock and most notably a very popular funk-jazz-style band called Substyle. As a family, we often perform together in churches and community events and in Fischer Family Jazz, our own jazz quartet.
Recent Recordings
