Michael Knopf

Dr. Michael Knopf is a poly-genre composer and multi-style classical and jazz concert guitarist. His music crosses style and genre boundaries reflecting his eclectic musical background and interests and consists of an extensive number of works for solo guitar, many choral works including CANTILLATIONS for choir and ensemble, chamber music and jazz compositions and works for orchestra such as his THE NEW EARTH Concerto for Guitar and Orchestra.
Having released 7 recordings of mostly original music, Michael is in the planning stage of two further recordings, a solo album of his own guitar compositions and an album of his original jazz for quartet.
Michael is also currently working on a major symphonic work invoking ideas from his interests in astronomy, cosmology and the planetary sciences. A set of works forming a symphony using large orchestral forces, choir & electronic sound design, the first work is entitled "Improbable Horizons". This piece uses the idea of the unreal and almost hallucinatory perspective of the horizon on a variety of potential human landscapes such as asteroids, planets and the imagined "orbitals" - constructed habitations of small to immense sizes that feature in visionary science fiction. All this inspires musical analogues to create the music. Such ideas evoke inner resonances concerning the spiritual maturation of humanity where its advances in science are matched with human compassion in the regard of every earthly and non-earthly person as the same as one's self- a precious regard ensuring the tranquillity of our species as a sentient and spiritual society. The many races of mankind compete in friendship if the race for humanity.
Michael may be contacted for commissions and scores at michaeldknopf@gmail.com