Michael Whalen

A prolific, Emmy Award-winning composer and pianist, Michael Whalen’s impressive career has spanned numerous genres and platforms, from albums of jazz, classical, varied electronic music, and new age music to work on film scores, television themes, audio books, and commercials. After devoting much of the 1990s to material for the screen and early solo recordings such as 1996’s acclaimed Nightscenes, a collection of ambient electronic vignettes, he increased focus on his own classical compositions. The 2000s brought continued work on television documentaries including the series Nature, as well as eclectic solo albums that traversed instrumental piano pieces, electronic music, and piano jazz. Released in 2006, The Shadows of October featured works for clarinet quartet, string quartet, and solo clarinet with string orchestra. In the 2010s, Whalen continued to release albums and manage other compositional jobs while also serving as an adjunct professor at New York University’s Clive Davis Institute for Recorded Music and at City College. In 2022 alone, he contributed music to the PBS series American Experience, issued the Live in Concert recording, compiled an EP of remixes of his own “Across the World to Be with You,” and released the electronic album Imaginary Trains, which was informed by the 1970s and ’80s era of acts like Tangerine Dream.
Although born in New York, Whalen grew up in Washington, D.C., where he played in a variety of orchestras, bands, and experimental performance groups. He studied music at the Interlochen Center for the Arts, Berklee College of Music, New England Conservatory, and University of Maryland. In 1987, he moved to New York City, where he composed for television soundtracks and commercials; Whalen provided music for well over 2,000 commercials, including award-winning campaigns for clients such as leading automobile, soda, apparel, energy, and technology brands.
In 1995, Whalen traveled to the Czech Republic to record a collection of symphonic and chamber works entitled Afraid of Thunder. The recording was performed by the Janácek Philharmonic under the baton of Dennis Burkhr and chamber orchestra Music Amici. Whalen’s other chamber compositions (many of which were published and available for performance) have included works for string quartet, a mixed octet, several pieces for string orchestra and soloists, and a commission for choir. Meanwhile, he added a number of themes for major television networks to his résumé (among them Good Morning America and The Oprah Winfrey Show) and scores for television documentaries, some of which received soundtrack releases, including Sea Power: A Global Journey (1993, Narada) and Forever Wild (1996, Narada). His film score for Perfect Moment was winner of the Audience Award at the 1997 Utah Slamdance Film Festival. Whalen also continued to release instrumental music of his own: Nightscenes, issued in 1996 by Hearts of Space Records, showcased electronic music, while 1997′s North from Riverside was with his jazz band, Open Door. The Softest Touch, an album of solo piano pieces, was released by Max in 1999. A collection of atmospheric but jazz-informed electronic music, The Border of Dusk arrived on Koch in 2000. The label also released 2001′s Mysterious Ways. Alchemy Records then released his score for the TV documentary series The Shape of Life in 2002 as well his 2004 solo album Like Rain Through My Hands, which reflected a time of great personal upheaval. A year later, Narada issued My Secret Heart: Romantic Meditations for Ambient Piano. In 2005, Valley Entertainment delivered his score for 2005′s Slavery and the Making of America and Whalen released of one of his most popular solo albums, My Secret Heart. Recorded in two days at The Power Station (Studio A) in Manhattan, it contained the song “I Have Loved You for a Thousand Lifetimes,” which came to be regarded as a new age romantic classic. He won an Emmy Award in 2008 for his work on America at a Crossroads (episode “Operation Homecoming: Writing the Wartime Experience”). The EverSound label issued a compilation titled Dancing in Black & White: The Best of Michael Whalen in 2010.
While also engaged with teaching and with speaking appearances on the subject of digital copyright and music monetization, Whalen returned in 2015 with the crowdfunded You Are My Home. Dream Cycle followed on Soothe Your World/Valley in 2017. Also that year, Whalen produced and arranged the Donald Trump protest song “Tiny Hands” with singer/songwriter Fiona Apple to coincide with the president’s inauguration and the Women’s March. The song was posted on SoundCloud and went viral within a matter of hours.
Another album of tranquil piano compositions, Kiss the Quiet, appeared in 2018, though Whalen circled back to his jazz side a year later on Michael Whalen & the Fire Brigade, featuring drummer Vinnie Colaiuta (Jing Chi), bassist Michael League (Snarky Puppy), and saxophonist Bob Magnuson. In 2019, Whalen made a label-imprint deal with Real Music/myndstream that was purchased by Cutting Edge Group in Los Angeles. That July, Whalen released Cupid Blindfolded, a spare set of solo piano music produced at Windham Hill Records founder Will Ackerman’s private studio in Vermont. On November 1st, 2019, Whalen became the General Manager and Head of A&R for Real Music/myndstream.
In early 2020, Whalen released Sacred Spaces, an album full of the textured electronics and dreamy melodies that had become his trademark. His first duo recording with Malaysian multi-instrumentalist BlueMonk, Karmic Dreams arrived later in the year. Following a period of illness that included major surgery, Whalen returned in April 2021 with a change of pace, an instrumental fusion album called Future Shock (released on his own label even though he was still at myndstream). It featured bassist Tony Levin (King Crimson) and drummer Simon Phillips (Toto). Whalen left myndstream when his contract expired in November 2021, but not before releasing myndstream Collection, Vol. 1, which featured ambient music by Daniel Lanois, Mark Isham, Rick Wakeman, and others.
In April 2022, Whalen issued the well-received electronic album Imaginary Trains, which was inspired by the music of 1970s and ’80s German electronic groups like Tangerine Dream and Kraftwerk. In July, he released Live in Concert, a recording of his livestreamed performance from EMEAPP (the Electronic Music Education and Preservation Project) earlier in the year. 2022 also included an EP of remixes of his song “Across the World to Be with You” that featured contributions from, among others, Simon Phillips and Bombay Dub Orchestra. In the meantime, Whalen delivered score material including music for the TV series American Experience. ~ Marcy Donelson & Carol Wright