Michael R. Dudley Jr. is a New York City/Lenapehoking-based multi-disciplinary writer, musician, and educator. Known for emotionally poignant climate-focused art grounded through themes of relationships and humanity, Michael’s work has been represented in a range of media from intimate short stories to grand orchestral scores.

 

Their latest project, currently in progress, is a large jazz ensemble album telling the environmental and relational histories of Appalachia, synthesizing musical influences from Scotts-Irish Appalachian, Black American, and Indigenous musical traditions. This project will coincide with a creative residency at the Virginia Center for Creative Arts, where Michael was accepted as an Anne Spencer Fellow to compose music for the upcoming recording. As a composer, Michael has earned awards/commissions from ASCAP, BMI, New York Youth Symphony, Orchestra of St. Luke's, the International Society of Jazz Arrangers and Composers, and the Sphinx Organization.

 

As a trumpet player, Michael has performed with acclaimed artists and ensembles across genres from the acclaimed orchestras of Maria Schneider, Christian McBride, and Darcy James Argue, to hip-hop/R&B force Derrick Hodge’s Color of Noize, in addition to making appearances as a lead trumpet player on multiple GRAMMY®-winning recordings by the John Daversa Big Band and Brian Lynch Big Band. Their most recent contribution was as on the GRAMMY®-nominated album in tribute to Kenny Wheeler, Some Days Are Better: The Lost Scores.

 

As a composer and arranger, Michael has studied with Maria Schneider, Miho Hazama, Gary Lindsay, Noam Wiesenberg, and Stephen Guerra, having recently earned ISJAC and ASCAP Foundation awards for their piece "Overture to The Before And After Times." In 2024 Michael participated in the Orchestra of St. Luke's DeGaetano Composition Institute, being mentored by acclaimed composer Augusta Read Thomas with a culminating premiere by the GRAMMY®-winning chamber orchestra at New York's own DiMenna Center for Classical Music. They also have collaborated with artists such as Donny McCaslin, and Michael's compositions and orchestrations have been performed by numerous major ensembles, including the National Symphony Orchestra, Nashville Symphony, San Francisco Symphony, Seattle Symphony, Sphinx Virtuosi, Chicago Sinfonietta, Charlotte Symphony, Henry Mancini Institute Orchestra, Next Festival of Emerging Artists, New Canon Chamber Collective, and Cincinnati Contemporary Jazz Orchestra, with more premieres scheduled soon.

 

Michael also values work as an educator, having served as the Assistant Professor of Jazz Studies at SUNY Potsdam's Crane School of Music from 2021-2024, in addition to giving masterclasses across the country. Michael was also recently brought on staff as an instructor and recording engineer at the JAS Academy in Aspen, Colorado alongside Christian McBride, Etienne Charles, Shelly Berg, Brian Lynch, and Chuck Bergeron after first participating as a student in 2019.