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Michael Horwood was born in Buffalo, New York, on May 24, 1947. He studied music composition and theory at the State University of New York at Buffalo with Istvan Anhalt, Lukas Foss, Ramon Fuller and Lejaren Hiller, receiving his Bachelor's and Master's degrees (1969, 1971). In 1971, he moved to Canada and from 1972-2003 was a professor of music and humanities at Humber College of Applied Arts and Technology in Toronto. During the latter half of the 1970s, Horwood formed Convergence, an improvisation ensemble in which he played piano and percussion. In 2003, he retired from teaching and with his wife moved to Cowley, Alberta.
His more than seventy compositions constitute a kaleidoscope of the traditional and the avant-garde spanning a wide variety of contemporary idioms including twelve-tone, theatre pieces, electroacoustic (both live and pre-recorded), jazz, minimalism and neo-romanticism. He has written for conventional ensembles, unusual instrumental combinations and even flexible scoring. Among his most successful works have been those which involve extra-musical concepts such as his chamber works Birds (1979) and Nervous Disorder (1988), the electroacoustic work Motility (revised 1986) and the orchestral works Amusement Park Suite (1986), National Park Suite (1991) and Symphony No. 2, Visions of a Wounded Earth (1995).
Horwood seems content writing in any genre and, similarly, feels a composer today should be able to adapt and create in a variety of styles. From all the deliberate variety in Horwood's music, a few personal traits have tended to emerge. One of these is an acute sense of sonority, the knack of exploiting the unique ranges and timbres of his instrumental forces, whether in solo or combinations. This use of instrumental sound is occasionally coupled with an overt sense of theatricality or humour, even in his non-theatre works.
Since the late 1980s, many of Horwood's compositions have returned to his original interest in Romantic period music. Thus, the more global interest in neo-romanticism is seen by Horwood as not only welcome, but concurrent with his own creative goals.
Text adapted from an earlier article by Michael Schulman.
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