Biography
- PhD, composition/theory and jazz studies, University of Pittsburgh
- MA, integrated composition, improvisation, and technology, University of California-Irvine
- BA, music and computer science, Columbia University
Mark Micchelli is a pianist, composer, scholar, and educator. His music has been described as “both spontaneous and very intentionally crafted” (I Care If You Listen), “so imaginative and adroit it deserves wider appreciation” (Fanfare Magazine), and “jazz that knows the rules but gets weird with them” (KALW). Recent albums include Glitched-On Bop (New Focus Recordings, 2025), featuring jazz standards reimagined for solo piano and improvising computer, and Five Years in Exile (Ropeadope, 2026), featuring an eclectic mix of art song, jazz, punk, and noise. He is also the producer and music director for Mai Khôi’s Bad Activist, a multimedia theatrical performance that has been performed more than 40 times in the U.S. and internationally.
As a music theorist and pedagogue, Micchelli challenges the siloing of composition, performance and research, instead exploring creative practice as a mode of music-theoretical inquiry. This approach has guided his publications on the solo piano music of Cecil Taylor, which have appeared in Music Theory Online and SMT-Pod, and for which he was the recipient of a 2023 SMT Emerging Scholar Award. His current research suggests broader applications for composer/theorist George Russell’s landmark treatise, The Lydian Chromatic Concept of Tonal Organization.
Micchelli received his PhD at the University of Pittsburgh, where he was the first graduate to earn a combined degree in composition/theory and jazz studies. Before joining the faculty at Temple University, he served as visiting assistant professor of composition at West Virginia University and adjunct professor at Carnegie Mellon University, the University of Pittsburgh, and the Community College of Allegheny County.