Sahl, Michael, 1934-

Michael Sahl was born on September 2, 1934 in Boston. In 1942, after his family moved to New York, he commenced his formal musical training. In 1947, he began studying with Israel Citkowitz and has cited the composer and critic as particularly instrumental in endowing him with a love for American popular music. As a result, Sahl's increased involvement with and interest in folk, blues, jazz and American popular vocal standards influenced much of his compositional output. He later studied at Amherst College and Princeton University, where his teachers included Roger Sessions and Milton Babbitt. He also worked with Lukas Foss, Luigi Dallapiccola and Aaron Copland. Sahl's academic training at Princeton centered on 12-note and serial techniques. In 1957-58, he received a Fulbright Fellowship in Europe and spent the following few years overseas attempting to compose in a Modernist style, but eventually realized that his inclination to write tonal melodies was too strong to ignore. In 1963, Sahl returned to the USA and became active in folk-rock music circles. After serving as a Creative Associate at the State University of New York at Buffalo in 1965, he became the pianist and music director for Judy Collins. Following his departure from Collins in 1969, Sahl made his reputation as a composer of operas, musical shows, and instrumental works, several of which are written in a musical style dominated by the hybridization of Romanticism, jazz and rock. He became acclaimed as one of the earliest composers to write in a genre-blending style that successfully managed to straddle the boundaries between classical "new music," pop, rock, jazz, and musical theater.

From the description of Michael Sahl Score Collection, 1953-2009. (SUNY at Buffalo). WorldCat record id: 496296948