Biography


Michael Mikulka's music has been performed throughout the United States and abroad, including by members of the New York Philharmonic, Cleveland Symphony Orchestra, and Dallas Symphony Orchestra, by performance faculty at universities across the country, and by founding members of the Canadian Brass, Mnozil Brass, and the Kronos Quartet. Michael has been named a winner or finalist 33 times in composition contests and calls for scores. He teaches Music Theory, Ear Training, Composition, and Horn at Austin Community College and teaches private horn lessons in Pflugerville ISD.


Michael completed his DMA in Composition at the University of Texas, where his primary teachers were Donald Grantham and Yevgeniy Sharlat. He completed his MM in Composition at Central Michigan University, where he studied with David Gillingham, and he received his undergraduate degree in Music Education from Rutgers University.


As a horn player, Michael has studied with Pat Hughes, Douglas Lundeen, and Amy Larkey-Emelianoff.
While pursuing his doctoral degree, Michael performed as a member of the University of Texas Symphony Orchestra, Wind Ensemble, and Horn Choir. He frequently performs solo and chamber compositions by living composers, including the October 2018 premiere of David Carlton Adams' "Concerto for Horn and Chamber Orchestra". Michael was a contributing artist at the 54th and 55th International Horn Symposiums, and his book A Practical Method for Horn Multiphonics has been widely praised by new music experts and brass pedagogues.


In March of 2013, Michael created New Band Music, a composer advocacy site which promotes self-published wind ensemble works written by "emerging" composers for free. He was the founder and conductor of the Vine Orchestra, which resulted in the premiere of more than 50 (six-second or less) compositions.

Michael is also a reasonably-competent trumpeter, and he plays duduk with Bereket Middle-Eastern Ensemble. Michael is half Armenian and hopes that his duduk playing and cooking abilities at least partially offset his blond hair and toddler-like grasp of the Armenian language. Michael grew up in rural New Jersey (it exists). After a childhood that consisted primarily of playing sports and catching literally tens of thousands of fish, he now spends much of his free time cooking, reading, and following intersectional feminists on Twitter (or wherever they go post-Elon). Michael remains a fan of the New York Mets and Boston Red Sox (and whatever team is playing the Yankees). His favorite league to watch is the NBA, but he has been rooting for individual players rather than teams ever since the Nets moved out of NJ.




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