Michael Close is a composer, cellist, and music educator living in Worcester, VT. He has been a composer-mentor with "Music-Comp" since 2004, a program which encourages and supports students in composing and arranging music. He teaches cello and chamber music classes at the Monteverdi Music School in Montpelier. He is also the music teacher at Doty Memorial School in his hometown of Worcester. As a cellist, Michael performs with a variety of chamber music groups including Arioso, Yellow Sky, and the Living Woods baroque ensemble. He is a prolific composer and some of his most recent works have been performed by the Montpelier Chamber Orchestra (VT), The Birmingham Bloomfield Symphony (MI), The Vermont Contemporary Music Ensemble, The Playground Ensemble (CO), Chamber Music at the Scarab Club of Detroit, The Eleva Chamber Players (VT), the Vermont Choral Union, and Arioso (VT). His new work, 'A Child's Book of Animals' a song cycle for Bass voice and Orchestra will be premiered by the Longmont Symphony in Denver this January 2019