Michael Torke

A recent project for the New York City Opera fell through. Torke was born in Milwaukee Wisconsin; graduated from Wauwatosa East High School; and studied at the Eastman School of Music with Joseph Schwantner and Christopher Rouse and at Yale University. He was commissioned to help Chicago celebrate the centennial of Daniel Burnham's 1909 Plan of Chicago and produced a work entitled Plans that was performed at the Grant Park Music Festival in June 2009.

Commissioned by Disney and Michael Eisner for the New York Philharmonic's Millennium Celebration he wrote Four Seasons an oratorio for chorus and orchestra celebrating various aspects of the months. His most well known work is probably Javelin which he composed in 1994 commissioned by the Atlanta Committee for the Olympics in celebration of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra's 50th anniversary season in conjunction with the 1996 Summer Olympics. He was commissioned to help Chicago celebrate the centennial of Daniel Burnham's 1909 Plan of Chicago and produced a work entitled Plans that was performed at the Grant Park Music Festival in June 2009.