If you don't yet know the music of Michael Colina, here's your opportunity to meet a fine composer. Just a quick sampling of the music at his website will tell you that this is the real thing - a composer who communicates. But where did he come from?

Michael was born of Cuban-American heritage, studied composition at the North Carolina School of the Arts with Vittorio Giannini, Louis Mennini and Robert Ward. He continued studies at the Chigiana in Sienna, Italy with Thomas Pasatieri and Roman Vlad. He was the first recipient of the Vittorio Giannini Memorial Scholarship award.

Now a New York-based composer and jazz producer, he has written music for television, film, theatre, dance and the concert stage for more than 20 years, and has produced CDs for jazz greats like Bob James, David Sanborn, Michael Brecker, Marcus Miller, Bill Evans, Michael Franks and Marilyn Scott.

A multiple Grammy® winner, Colina has worked alongside recording legends like George Benson, Earl Klugh, James Taylor, Linda Ronstadt and Bonnie Raitt, and his music has been performed throughout the United States, Europe and Japan. After 25 years of helping others create their music, Michael is focusing today on the music that he has always dreamed of creating for himself. As his website says, "His most recent works reflect a new direction, one that pulls threads from jazz, classical, and his Cuban-American heritage - a music that transcends categories and takes the listener to an invisible world of subtle discovery." We think you'll agree.

Examples of this new direction include The Isles of Shoals, a solo for flute and orchestra; The Idoru Piano Trio for piano, violin and cello; The People, an orchestral work for Richard Kuch commissioned by the Boston Ballet; and a modern dance score, A Time of Crickets, commissioned by Pauline Koner and supported by The National Endowment for the Arts.

The list of new works that he has written in the last five years also includes:

Sestina Mutations for Solo Piano
Jota De Alba for Solo Piano
Notturno for Piano and Violin
Quintet for Piano, Violin, Cello, Flute and Clarinet
Idoru Trio for Piano, Violin and Cello
Disturbing the Silence for String Quartet
Piano Concertino for Piano and String Orchestra

Michael is deeply grateful for the honors and success his music has brought him over the years, but his greatest satisfaction comes from the creative process itself. "In the end," he says, "I want to be remembered as someone whose music was honest, passionate, and poetic."

To hear samples of his wonderful music, visit http://www.michaelcolina.com/sound.htm.

Duo Brasilis will also tour this Program throughout Brazil and Argentina in 2005-2006, including performances in Salvador, Belem, Brasilia, Sao Paulo, Rio and Buenos Aires.

On the same tour will be The Brito Trio, whose members include pianist Ana Claudia Brito, and siblings, cellist Marcelo Salles and violinist Marianna Salles. Marianna teaches violin at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. Ana Claudia has toured and recorded extensively throughout South America and Spain. The trio will premiere and also record Michael's Idoru Piano Trio.

Read the 4-part Cuba Diaries at http://www.michaelcolina.com/diaries_intro.htm