I am a music composer. My early exposure to music was my father coming home after work and playing 40s style crooner songs on the piano. Later, I was swept away with the British Invasion; such a distinct and different sound from the Elvis rock and roll that my sister liked. I remember thinking that I wanted to learn how they make that sound, and soon after that, I wanted to know how to write music like that. I got a guitar, and later a bass, and off I went with my older brother playing in rock and roll garage bands emulating that great 60s sound.

Later in high school, I was attracted to Paul Simon and James Taylor and began developing a finger pick style of guitar playing. Throughout this period, as well as subsequent periods of my life, I wrote songs. This was always my passion.

In my 4th year at the University of Texas (History major, pre-med minor)  I fell in love with classical guitar. I taught myself the basics, then began my studies in music. First, I completed my undergraduate courses in music theory and studied classical guitar with Tom Johnson at North Texas State University (now called UNT). I spent the summers at the Aspen Music Festival studying with Oscar Ghiglia, and then received my Master degree with Eliot Fisk at Yale University (still called Yale University.)

Long story short, the job market for classical guitar teachers was at a remarkable low in 1980, and I decided to go to medical school. Figuring that every great musician needs a benefactor, I decided to be my own benefactor. I wrote songs in medical school (The Bipolar Blues) and with the explosion of digital music and recording in the 80s and 90s I was able to create increasing complex and refined music.

The styles of my music range from film instrumentals, to popular singer-songwriter pieces, to some recent adventures into creating music out of the spoken word. I have actively composed music since the 60s! I currently work on my own projects and produce music for for professional purposes (see my video collection “What You See.”)

In addition, when I am away from my studio, I love to shoot video of our vacation adventures. As I compile and organize these videos into short movies, I then can use my own music as backing tracks, and YouTube stops sending me those annoying messages about using other people’s music! So it all fits together in the end.

Let me know if you’d like to collaborate. I am happy to share my music for your videos; just let me know what you’re interested in.

You can contact me by email: michael@michaelfontenot.net