Michael J. Starke Contributor

Michael J. Starke, a native of Long Beach, California, is a largely self-taught composer and performer on historical instruments. Over several decades he combined practical music-making with an interest in computer notation and digital distribution. In the early 1990s he began using notation software to prepare scores and parts and discovered that the resulting digital music data could be shared through the Internet.

Starke has written particularly for recorder consorts and other ensembles in which he performed. While serving with the United States Air Force in Japan, he composed choral music for church services broadcast over Armed Forces Radio and for local music festivals. Later projects included music for an educational computer game, a National Geographic production, a school ballet project, and websites, reflecting his practical interest in ensemble music and digital music technology.

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Michael is a native of Long Beach, California. A largely self-taught composer and period instrument player for the past 30 years, Michael in the early 1990s found he could use a computer and notation software to better produce scores and quickly prepare individual parts. A byproduct of this process was the digital music information that could be exported from the program and shared on the Internet with many people all over the world. From that experience come the files that you see on this page.

He has been writing mostly for recorder ensembles for the many groups he has played in over the years. While assigned with the U.S. Air Force to Japan, he composed choral music for church services broadcast over Armed Forces Radio in Japan and performed in several city music festivals in Japan.

Recently he has provided music for an educational computer game, a National Geographic production and a school ballet project. Michael has also composed music for numerous Web Pages.

Michael lives with his wife Amy, a newspaper food writer, and cares for his two sons in Portland, Oregon, works part-time as a pharmacy technician, and enjoys playing in his weekly recorder group meetings.

Buy Starke's CDs
from his affiliated site or from here.