Choral, chamber, orchestral and vocal music written by someone who spent decades on the opera stage before turning to the page.
“Music stirs the passions and the soul. Creating new music gives me the honor of transporting my listeners and sharing the emotional journey of music with each and every one of them.” Michael Alexander Chadwick
Every piece with a recorded performance links out to it. Original compositions are marked in green; arrangements of existing songs in blue.
I have been involved with music for almost fifty years. I don't recall learning to read music; I was too young to remember it. I started piano lessons at age three, took up the French horn in sixth grade, began singing opera in college, and stage directed my first opera, Mozart's Don Giovanni, in 2005.
I spent decades as a vocalist and stage director in opera and oratorio choruses around the United States and abroad, with companies including Dallas Opera, Houston Grand Opera, the Opera Festival of New Jersey, Spoleto Festival USA and Spoleto Festival dei Due Mondi, Princeton Pro Musica, Fort Worth Opera and Princeton Opera.
My first piece was a lullaby for a cousin's newborn, written while I was an undergraduate Music Education major at Westminster Choir College. Performing and directing took over for a while, but I never stopped arranging and composing here and there for various ensembles. During the pandemic in 2020 I decided to give original composition a greater focus and enrolled in the Music Theory graduate program at Stephen F. Austin State University, completing my Master of Music in the spring of 2023.
I am a music theory nerd. Think of theory as music engineering: understanding how one sound at a given pitch relates to the sounds around it, and what role certain notes play in tonality, is just scratching the surface. Training as a composer without learning theory is like training as a surgeon without taking anatomy. It expands the painter's palette from primary colors to the whole spectrum. I encourage everyone to create music in whatever way speaks to them, and to learn theory so they can do it to the best of their ability.
Alongside composing, I teach music, direct a professional caroling ensemble called The Village Carolers, and maintain one of the largest supertitle rental libraries in the world.
Printed octavos and digital downloads. For anything not listed, or for a commission, use the contact details below.
Composer profile with printed octavos and choral music for schools, churches and ensembles.
Open profile → Digital downloadsArrangements, including the SATB a cappella carol book written for The Village Carolers.
Browse arrangements → Full listingA search of all current compositions and arrangements available on Sheet Music Plus.
See the full list →If you are interested in commissioning a new work, or performing one of the existing pieces, write or call and I will respond as soon as I am able.