“THE power to make an audience sit up and pay attention... thought-provoking for performers and listeners alike”
-all music guide
He is a native of Philadelphia and resides in Baltimore, where he works at both the Peabody Conservatory and the Baltimore School for the Arts, sharing his love and understanding of music and the artistic process with future generations. His hobbies include avoiding political discussions on Facebook, clumsily attempting to master certain bodyweight exercises so as to be able to eat and drink whatever he wants relatively without consequence, and reading.
“A VIRTUOSIC SOLOIST POSSESSED OF POWER, SENSITIVITY, EARTHINESS AND HUMOR.”
-Indianapolis star
As I said on the "welcome" page, music through the piano has been the major engine of my life thus far; though gigs and performances are beginning to come back, what has mainly kept me practicing throughout the pandemic has been adding videos to my Patreon page. Please consider signing up if you think you might enjoy such a thing, which I hope would explain why you're on this page to begin with. For the price of a cup of coffee (ok, let's be honest: more like a Starbucks double armadillo-milk* cappuccino), you can hear a dizzying array of crazy-beautiful and fun music each month; alternative coffee additives aside, who doesn't love that?
*as of this writing, Starbucks does not have armadillo milk, so relax
Anyway, now that the fun stuff is out of the way, here is my Official Serious Musician Person Bio (or at least one of the 53 or so floating around out there; hopefully this one is at least up-to-date).
Known as “a virtuosic soloist possessed of power, sensitivity, earthiness, and humor” (Whitney Smith, Indianapolis Star) with the “power to make an audience sit up and pay attention...thought-provoking for performers and listeners alike” (James Manheim, All Music Guide ), Michael Sheppard studied with the legendary Leon Fleisher at the Peabody Conservatory. He was selected by the American Pianists Association as a Classical Fellow, which designation led to the recording of his Harmonia Mundi CD of 2007. In 2018 he released an experimental album of all improvisations, "12 Images." In between those two, there was another album which has been languishing in limbo and will hopefully come out some time before the piano itself ceases to be culturally relevant. Updates about that as they occur. (His recording, not the relevancy thing.)
He has performed solo recitals and concertos around the world, as well as across the USA, including several solo Weill (Carnegie) Hall recitals and a solo Kennedy Center debut. As a funny little matter of fact, he happens to have given solo recitals in the hometowns of both Mahler (Jihlava, Czech Republic) and Elvis (Tupelo, Mississippi), and enjoys taking in the local culture wherever in the world he finds himself. Michael gives master classes, teaches regularly and plays with some of the top singers and instrumentalists around; he also coaches singers, instrumentalists, and conductors, and also has begun to conduct occasionally himself.
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