RESIDENCIES
I offer comprehensive in-person and remote educational residencies for anyone interested in collaboration, productivity, expressivity, and entrepreneurship. These visits, ranging from 30 minutes to a multiple visits across several months, blend my unique perspective on percussion playing, collaboration with an inquisitive, investigative mindset ideally suited to universities and other critically thinking teams.
Contact me to see how I can help your community!
What People are Saying
“Dr. Compitello is a master artist and teacher! The students at Kent State University immediately gravitated towards his approachable and friendly manner as a clinician. His approach to the instruments is incredibly fresh and inimitable. As a performer, he is at the pinnacle of our profession.
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“ As a sonic explorer, Michael’s artistry takes our thoughts and ears to amazing frontiers, asking musical questions of instruments we presumed we knew well enough. His curiosity, and that of the composers he collaborates, has yielded amazing new music for snare drum. Not since the Noble Snare Collection has there been such an intriguing gathering of experiments for the snare drum. Michael’s “Unsnared Drum” project has re-imagined the instrument, providing a new path for performers and composers. Our experience with Michael’s artistry and pedagogy is not to be forgotten. ”
Unsnared Drum
An ambitious commissioning project featuring a series of new solo works for the snare drum by composers Nina C. Young, Hannah Lash, Amy Beth Kirsten, and Tonia Ko, Unsnared Drum illuminates the snare drum’s breadth of sonic possibility and depth of expressivity, revealing an instrument of drama, grace, and heart.
Each composition is the result of an unusually deep collaborative process; I commissioned each piece, and worked in close coordination with each composer for a number of years, working with them to dive into the sonic possibilities of the instrument. Each composer lived with snare drums in their homes for a number of years, and this intimate process of discovery permeates the pieces on the album.
What Critics are Saying
“Soulful and adventurous…dramatic moments meet sophistication”
“Phenomenal musicality”
“Brilliant technique”
“It will make your heart sing!”
In this visit, I present the four works in performance or via recording, and discusses how the project can be a case study for larger ideas about our music making in 2023:
How performers can nudge percussion towards a more representative, equitable, and inclusive mindset
How long-term collaboration can innovate and inspire
I've presented Unsnared Drum across universities across the country. I’d love to work with you on a unique iteration of this presentation that can best suit your team!
Media
What to Practice Before you Practice
In this class, I offer a systematic and creative method to help high-powered musicians become more powerful and impactful advocates for their work with one step: falling in love with learning. Focusing on the linkages between curation, practice, research, analysis, interpretation, and storytelling, I weave together together humanities methodologies, scientific research, and intuition-based musical analysis to show how learning outside the practice room catalyzes creative, effective, and durable practicing. The goal: life-changing, path-breaking, crystal clear interpretations of new and familiar repertoire and (more importantly) increased impact of your art.
The subject of my forthcoming book, topics include:
Pre-Practice Preparation: research, framing.
Creative practice for mastery and poetry.
Time-management in and out of the practice room
Using recording to be your own teacher
Sharing your work