Michael Abels
Abels In November 2019
Born	(1962-10-08)October 8, 1962 (age 63) Phoenix, Arizona, U.S.
Education	USC Los Angeles Thornton School Of Music
Occupation	Composer

Michael Abels (born October 8, 1962) is an American composer best known for the operaOmar, co-written withRhiannon Giddens, and his scores for theJordan Peele filmsGet Out,Us andNope. The hip-hop influenced score forUs was short-listed for theOscars and was even named "Score of the Decade" byTheWrap. Other recent media projects include the filmsBad Education,Nightbooks,Fake Famous, and the docu-seriesAllen v. Farrow. His most recent releases includeBeauty which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival and is now streaming on Netflix,Breaking (formerly892) which premiered at Sundance, and his third collaboration with Jordan Peele,Nope.

Abels' works also includes many concert works, such asAt War With Ourselves for theKronos Quartet,^[1]Isolation Variation forHilary Hahn, and the operaOmar co-composed with Grammy-winning singer/songwriterRhiannon Giddens.^[2][3] Some of these pieces are available on theCedille Records, includingDelights & Dances andWinged Creatures. Recent commissions include a work for theNational Symphony Orchestra and a guitar concerto forMak Grgić.^[4]

Abels is co-founder of the Composers Diversity Collective, an advocacy group to increase visibility of composers of color in film, gaming and streaming media.^[5]

In 2023, the operaOmar, co-written by Abels andRhiannon Giddens, won thePulitzer Prize for Music.^[6]

Abels was born inPhoenix, Arizona. He spent his early years on a small farm inSouth Dakota, where he lived with his grandparents.^[7] Introduced to music via the family piano, he began showing an innate curiosity towards music at age 4.^[8] His music-loving grandparents convinced the local piano teacher to take him on as a student despite his age. At age 8, Abels began composing music, and by age 13, his first completed orchestral work was performed.^[9]

Upon graduating from high school, Abels attended theUniversity of Southern CaliforniaThornton School of Music inLos Angeles. Abels, who is mixed race,^[7] eventually studied West African drumming techniques atCalifornia Institute of the Arts, and sang in a predominantly black church choir to further explore hisAfrican-American roots.^[10]

Composer

• Get Out (2017)
• Us (2019)
• See You Yesterday (2019)
• All Day and a Night (2020)
• Bad Education (2020)
• Fake Famous (2021)
• Nightbooks (2021)
• Allen v. Farrow (2021)
• Nope (2022)
• Breaking (2022)
• Landscape with Invisible Hand (2023)
• The Burial (2023)
• The American Society of Magical Negroes (2024)
• The Acolyte (2024)
• Sirens (2025)

Additional music

• Detroit (2017)

• Global Warming (1990) (commissioned by the Phoenix Youth Symphony)
• I'm Determined (1991) for orchestra
• How Majestic (1992) for orchestra
• American Variations on Swing Low Sweet Chariot (1993) (premiered byDoc Severinsen and thePhoenix Symphony)
• Frederick's Fables (1994, 1996) four pieces for orchestra, based on selected stories ofLeo Lionni
• Dance for Martin's Dream (1998) for orchestra (commissioned by theHouston Symphony and theNashville Symphony)
• You're a Grand Old Flag (1995) for orchestra
• More Seasons (1999)
• Limitless (2000) for choir, or soloist with choral accompaniment, and piano
• Homies & Popz (2001) opera
• Tribute (2001) for orchestra
• Affectionate Objects (2004) for orchestra
• Outburst (2005) for orchestra
• Delights & Dances (2007) for string quartet and orchestra^[11]
• Urban Legends (2008) for string quartet and orchestra (commissioned by theSphinx Organization)
• Aquadia (2009) for orchestra (co-commissioned by theChicago Sinfonietta and theShedd Aquarium)
• Be the Change (2015) for choir, or soloist with choral accompaniment, and piano
• The Open Hand
• Victory Road (2017) for orchestra
• Iconoclasm (2017) for piano
• Liquify (2017) for orchestra
• Twilight Drive for piano
• Winged Creatures (2018) for flute, clarinet and orchestra (commissioned byCedille Records^[12]) written forAnthony andDemarre McGill
• Pensivity for piano
• Life in a Day
• Struck by Enlightenment
• Falling Sky (for concert band) (2019)
• Falling Sky, ballet (2020)
• Anguish (fromFalling Sky) (2020) for piano
• Gift of the Machine (2020)
• Isolation Variation (2020) for unaccompanied violin (forHillary Hahn)
• At War with Ourselves, oratorio - libretto byNikky Finney, commissioned for theKronos Quartet
• Omar, an original opera on the life ofOmar ibn Said co-composed byRhiannon Giddens^[13]
• Get Out, in concert (2020)
• Emerge (2021) for orchestra (co-commission fromDetroit Symphony Orchestra)
• Guitar Concerto "Borders" (2022) Commissioned byROCO &Quad City Symphony, written forMak Grgić

• Profile at SubitoMusic.com
• Michael Abels atIMDb
• Michael Abels Website

• 1962 births
• 20th-century African-American musicians
• 20th-century American male musicians
• 20th-century American classical composers
• 21st-century African-American musicians
• 21st-century American male musicians
• 21st-century American classical composers
• African-American classical composers
• African-American film score composers
• African-American male classical composers
• American film score composers
• American gay musicians
• American LGBTQ composers
• American male classical composers
• American male film score composers
• Classical musicians from Arizona
• Classical musicians from South Dakota
• Gay composers
• LGBTQ classical composers
• LGBTQ film score composers
• Living people
• Musicians from Phoenix, Arizona
• Pulitzer Prize for Music winners
• USC Thornton School of Music alumni

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