Dr.
Michael Braz will be the pianist and harpsichordist for Stephen Preston's masterclasses.
He received his B.M. and M.M. degrees from the University of Miami, later completing
a Ph.D. as a University Fellow at Florida State University. A keyboard soloist
in England's Haslemere Festival of Early Music, he has also collaborated with
numerous orchestras, music festivals, and ensembles ranging from chamber music
to jazz and rock.
While teaching at Miami's Barry University, Braz wrote and premiered his first opera, Memoirs from the Holocaust, inspired by a visit to the Dachau concentration camp site. He has written orchestral/choral commissions for professional, collegiate, and school/community ensembles across the country, and was a recipient of an American Composers Forum/Rockefeller Brothers Fund "Faith Partners" grant. As the 2006 commissioned composer for Georgia Music Teachers Association, he wrote Three Provocations for solo piano. With over 20 published works in print, his most recent issues are settings of I Saw Three Ships and Deep River (treble choir), A Suite of Carols (orchestra, optional chorus) and Variations on a Theme by Beethoven (solo flute). Most recently, he premiered his second opera (A Scholar Under Siege) concerning racial politics in 1941 Georgia and the firing of a respected college president by the populist governor of that state.
A member of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia and Sigma Alpha Iota, Braz has received national recognition from both organizations. He was named a Signature Sinfonian in 2008 and, the following year, conducted a national wind ensemble and premiered an Inter-American Music Award treble choir commission (The Music In The Rainbow) at the SAI National Convention in Chicago. Several years ago, he embarked on a one-year teaching sabbatical, instructing students of various ages and backgrounds in England, Nepal and China.
As Professor of Music at Georgia Southern University and a 23-year faculty member, Dr. Braz teaches music composition, analytical techniques and orchestration, as well as courses on such subjects as Finale music software and Wagner's Ring Cycle. He is a book and music reviewer for various journals and publishers, and is in demand as a conductor, clinician, lecturer, and adjudicator. In the past, Braz has served as President of the Statesboro Arts Council and received Georgia Southern's President's Medal, the Award for Excellence in Service, the Ruffin Cup faculty award from the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences and the Statesboro Herald's "Humanitarian of the Year" honors. In fall 2009, he received recognition by the David H. Averitt Center as its third "Legend in the Arts."
His hobbies are comparative religions and trekking in the Nepal Himalaya.
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