Michael is from the small town of Waxhaw, near Charlotte, North Carolina. Waxhaw is where he grew up, except for two years spent in Nairobi, Kenya. He earned his Bachelor's Degree in Music Education from Western Carolina University in Cullowhee, NC in 2016, and earned his Master's Degree in Percussion Performance at Appalachian State University in Boone, NC in 2018. He now lives in Alexandria, Virginia, and is now ABD (all but dissertation) on his Doctorate of Musical Arts (DMA) in Percussion Performance at George Mason University.

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Michael's dissertation, due to be completed in 2026, is titled "Time Machines: Compositional Techniques of Progressive Metal Drummers." It explores the way prog metal drummers fill and communicate time, particularly in odd and mixed meters.

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He is a versatile percussionist, and has been playing since he began in band at age 13. His favorite instrument and first love is the marimba, followed closely by funk and metal drum set. But he enjoys playing any kind of percussion he can get his hands on, including steel pan and tabla. He also plays guitar, bass, and sitar, and sings.

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Michael was the drummer for Depot Street, a funk-rock band based in Boone, NC. He was instrumental in releasing their 2021 debut album Home, Sweet Home, available on all streaming platforms, which was recorded entirely in his home studio. He contributed five original songs to the album. He released his solo debut album, a funk-rock album titled To the Wind featuring 13 original songs, in October 2024.

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As a music teacher, he has been teaching in a breadth of capacities since 2012, primarily teaching individual lessons and working with the percussion sections of marching bands, including serving as the Front Ensemble Instructor for the Marching Mountaineers at Appalachian State. He served as a Graduate Teaching Assistant at George Mason teaching Musics of the World, Class Percussion, Percussion Pedagogy and Literature, and Aural Skills II. He is now the Percussion teacher at Whitman Middle School and the Front Ensemble Instructor at West Potomac High School.

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As an arranger, he has written front ensemble and full percussion books for a variety of marching band, steel band, indoor percussion ensembles. This includes two shows of entirely original music for West Potomac High School Indoor Percussion​, and 10 field shows for the Appalachian State University Marching Band of Distinction.

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He loves serving the Lord and others by leading in worship. In all things, soli Deo gloria.