Michael Mulcahy
Sir Georg Solti appointed Michael Mulcahy to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in 1989. He is Principal Trombone with Chicago’s Music of the Baroque and the Grand Teton Music Festival. His orchestral career began in 1976 as Principal Trombone of the Tasmanian Symphony. A year later he attained the same chair with the Melbourne Symphony. Michael left Australia in 1981 to pursue his career in Europe where he became Solo Trombone with the Cologne Radio Symphony Orchestra.
He has appeared as a soloist with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Pierre Boulez in music of Elliot Carter, and most recently with Daniel Barenboim in Leopold Mozart’s Concerto for Alto Trombone, which was also broadcast widely on public television. Other solo appearances include the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Hilversum Radio Symphony Orchestra, and on tour with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra.
Michael is the winner of several international competitions, among them the Australian Broadcasting Corporation Instrumental Competition, the ARD International Music Competition in Munich, the Viotti International Competition in Italy and the International Instrumental Competition in Markneukirchen, in the former East Germany.
He was named Senior Lecturer of the Canberra School of Music at the Australian National University in 1987. In 1999 he was appointed Professor of Music at Northwestern University. He has also been an Artist in Residence at Indiana University, and Wiley Housewright Scholar at Florida State University, and regularly appears at universities worldwide. He has taught and conducted at Daniel Barenboim’s East West Divan workshop for young Arab and Israeli musicians in Seville. Every July Michael leads his Summer Trombone Performance Master Class at Northwestern University.
Michael Mulcahy was born in Sydney, Australia. He began studying the Trombone with his father, Jack Mulcahy and completed his studies with Baden McCarron of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, and Geoffrey Bailey at the State Conservatorium of New South Wales.