Nineteen eighty-two close up photo of Jerry Michelsen with a long, red beard and mustache.

compositions

Here's a measure of my string quartet
The Worm Tune, written by hand in 1979. I was awarded a scholarship to study composition at
The Banff Centre of Fine Arts in Alberta, Canada. In 1981 the string quartet won a composition competition by
The Santa Fe Chamber Orchestra. It was juried by the American composer John Harbison. Soon after writing it, I began touring in Latin America with my jazz and blues group, The Jerry Michelsen Trio. Seventeen years later, the band split up and my career plans as a composer had changed. I still compose for my reformulated trio and continue composing for various ensembles.

Through time, this page will hopefully turn into a composer's blog to discuss composition and songwriting. I'll upload some of my compositions. Recordings of original pieces can be found on other pages in this site. But here, I'd like to address the written page and music notation.

Check back. We'll see how it developes.