Testimonials


“. . erotic but haunting, beautiful but frightening.”   

                            - Ann Tracy, digital artist



“Nicely done, with a rich tonal character and beautiful cadence within a ‘flowerbed’ of pulsing harmonic overtones.”

                            - Anonymous



“creates an unbelievable atmosphere of sound that refuses to be contained.”

                            - Chase Spruill, violinist with CityWater



“ . . it has that same crystal sound, clean and ringing overtones that are so relaxing, mind-clearing, and yet mysterious.”


                            - Janell, Coskun, composer

Mike Crain is an award-winning composer and percussionist based in Northern California. His compositions have been performed in New York, at the Festival of New American Music in Sacramento, and the "Day of Percussion" at California State University Sacramento and Southern Oregon University, Ashland. Recently, Mr. Crain's composition for chamber ensemble trio, Riptide, was performed by SyZyGy as part of the New Music Concert Series in Ashland. 
      Mike has performed in New York, Oregon, Southern California, and in the greater Bay Area at the Otherminds Festival (VI and VII), the Festival of New American Music, the Viola Festival, the John Cage MusiCircus at Fort Mason San Francisco, the Mondavi Performing Arts Center, the San Francisco Asian Art Museum, and Carnegie Hall. 
      His musical skills are in high demand, and he has played with many ensembles, such as the Empyrean Ensemble, Music Now, sfSound, Reddrum Percussion Group, the Sacramento Experimental Music Group, Camelia Symphony Orchestra, Sacramento Ballet, University of California Davis Symphony Orchestra, RSVP, Julia Dollison, Kerry Marsh, and the California Brass which was broadcast live on NPR. In addition to performing the premieres of several compositions by composers such as Howard Hersh, Hyo-shin Na, Eric Ewazen, Mike's other credits include working with notable composers such as Gavin Bryars, Linda Bouchard, Stephen Blumberg, and Michael Lipsey of Talujon.   
      Mike has studied, performed and composed a wide variety of music styles such as jazz, classical and rock--and focuses on a broad range of ethnic percussion from around the world. His ethnic specializations include tabla (North Indian drums), mbira (Zimbabwe), and Balinese Gamelan. During the summer of 2001, Mike studied in Bali under the direction of the gamelan master Dewa Putu Berata, director of Çudamani . Having completed a Bachelor of Music in both Theory/Composition and Percussion Performance and Masters degree in Performance. Mike is part of the faculty at California State University, Sacramento as an instructor of World Music and Electronic Music courses, and also Los Rios Community College District.http://www.sou.edu/music/percussion/index.shtmlhttp://www.sou.edu/music/percussion/index.shtmlCompositions/Entries/2004/1/10_Riptide.htmlhttp://www.roguevalleymusic.com/BioPages/SyZyGy.htmlhttp://www.otherminds.org/http://www.otherminds.org/http://music.ucdavis.edu/empyrean/http://www.rsvpchoir.org/index.htmhttp://www.juliadollison.com/flash/jd_Master.htmlhttp://www.kerrymarsh.net/bio.htmhttp://cudamani.org/http://cudamani.org/Authenticating_Consciousness.htmlshapeimage_2_link_0shapeimage_2_link_1shapeimage_2_link_2shapeimage_2_link_3shapeimage_2_link_4shapeimage_2_link_5shapeimage_2_link_6shapeimage_2_link_7shapeimage_2_link_8shapeimage_2_link_9shapeimage_2_link_10shapeimage_2_link_11

Biography

Performance/Performance.html