michael andrew doherty   

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Michael Andrew Doherty is a composer, performer and theoretician who specializes in small ensemble and solo works, shakuhachi, Armenian duduk and theatrical sound design.  In his musical career, spanning over 20 years, he has set out with the aim of continuing the exploration and evolution of music into new expressions leading from the late Romantic, Modern and Post-Modern masters of the 20th Century, but in patently non-academic modes.  His musicking, particularly since 2003, is an exploration into the convergence of silence and sound, considering silence/space as an essential musical element (jp. ma 間).

In 2008 Michael came to the Japanese bamboo flute, shakuhachi, and began to study under Dai Shihan Michael "Chikuzen" Gould.  As a performer, shakuhachi has become the focal point of his music endeavors, though other instruments / sounds remain on his musicking pallet: duduk (Armenian), hichiriki (篳篥), piano, organ, electronic synthesizers, laptop / phonography, assorted house-hold and specially designed items; instruments of his own construction and design. 

He received the 2005 award of "Best Avant-Garde Composer” by Denver's alternative newspaper Westword, and the “2005 Spotlight Award” for his sound design with Paragon Theatre Company.  His work has been compared to both John Cage and Alvin Lucier by other press agencies.  Michael has also worked in sound design and soundtrack composition, installation, live performance, and engineering, for both theater and motion picture works, of note for Paragon Theatre Company.