MEET THE COMPOSER
Painting: Valle De Bravo by Martha Joy Gottfried
MICHAEL JOHN WILEY
Michael always knew that he wanted to make music. “When I was a kid, I was always playing my guitar, which was a custom Mexican folk classical guitar that my dear grandparents purchased for me from an old master luthier in Coyoacán. I would learn to play songs by memory, create my own songs, and just strum deep sonorous chords against my chest all day long, while droning with my voice, or humming along and singing with the sounds. I still have that beautiful instrument.”
Despite the recognition and acclaim that he has garnered over the years, some of his projects are seen as controversial, and some people have mixed feelings about them. “I want to do and say things through my music that matter and help us all understand one another better to find shared purpose.” That desire to uncover a common ground through music, is what continues to inspire Michael to this day.
Will Michael be able to manifest some of his grandest musical plans and aspirations? Will there be individuals who step forward to help him share his message?
“I know that some of my music is ahead of its time, just as I know that the time for its message is approaching.”
Biography
Michael John Wiley heralds from a multi-cultural background epitomized by the Southwestern Desert. Being born in New Mexico, reared in a bilingual Mexico City, and later educated in the US, afforded him with a rich artistic world view and deep seated human understanding of these two neighboring countries. Although piano was his first musical instrument, by the time he was nine years old, he’d taken to the guitar as his personal favorite and continued this passion into his college years.
Wiley was born in Clovis, New Mexico on June 1, 1970, with dual US/Mexican nationality. Having his family life and formative years in Mexico City with his grandparents, Martha Joy Gottfried and Mario Héctor Gottfried Gutiérrez, Michael acquired an early bilingual foundation and an appreciation for the arts before relocating in 1979 with his family to Miami, Florida. While a Junior at Palmetto High School, at the age of sixteen, he joined the Alexander Muss High School In Israel foreign exchange program, which gave him the opportunity to study and tour the historic Israel, as well as earn future college credits.
Michael returned to the U.S. in 1987 and, along with his family, relocated to Litchfield Park, Arizona where he completed his high school education in 1988 at Agua Fria Union High School. After a couple of years of serious Engineering studies at Arizona State University, he shifted his major to Guitar Performance at the School of Music there. One year later in 1991, he found himself further south, at the University of Arizona, where he later graduated in 1996 with honors and a Bachelors Degree in Music Composition. During those previous five years he became interested in musicology, as he had developed a system for teaching instrumental music, in tandem with color coding the fretboard of his classical guitar.
After graduating in 1996 he became employed with the Tucson Unified School District through a new “Imaginarium” program, designed to bring local working artists to elementary schools, as scheduled visitor substitute teachers. At that time, he began work on two personal projects: transcribing the Mayan Calendar to music, and writing a comprehensive and interactive music theory manual based on his color coded guitar, which he had developed out of necessity while composing in 1991.
While at the University of Arizona, Michael also became intimately involved with the mathematics of the Mayan culture. He consequently began to meet with, a legendary and at the time local Dr. Jose Arguelles, whose work, Michael explains, had a tremendous impact on his life. As a result, Michael became involved with the Thirteen Moon Calendar Change Peace Movement. Michael’s studies of the Mayan calendar inspired him, over a period of six years, to make scientific and musical discoveries about the Overtone Series that ultimately led to the composition Tzolkin in C Major, a study for full orchestra.
Shortly after releasing his 2000 debut album OXLAHUN, the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra honored Michael with a world premiere performance of his composition Tzolkin in C Major (based on the sacred 260-day Mayan calendar), which took Third Prize at the prestigious Toru Takemistu Orchestral Competition in Japan, 2002.
“That night I touched a beautiful light at the center of my being, and I am eternally grateful to the Tokyo Philharmonic, its conductor Ken Takaseki, the Tokyo Opera City, and our judge Joji Yuasa for the opportunity to perform my work.”
Two years later, Michael embarked on a one year international head teacher position coordinated by local Tucson-an educators, at a brand new and exciting English speaking kindergarten school in Northern China. While there, he further developed his color coded music curriculum and upon returning home, channeled his creative efforts into Musical Colors, an education company focused on music pedagogy and musical instrument appreciation, through color coded musical instruments that use piano keyboard and guitar fretboard stickers that are directly applied to musical instruments.
In 2007, Michael released his first edition Tzolkin DVD, which showcases his award winning music, presented his audio visual calendar experience, Tzolkin Cultural Meditation, and detailed his musical theories and projects to date. It was also in this year that he received a five year commission to write a requiem, which has since been produced, for full orchestra, mariachi, grand choir and voice soloists, titled Lamento De La Frontera, and is currently seeking a live performance in the US and Mexico.
In 2014 he spearheaded, along with coffee caballero Andy Newbom, an against the grain but noble effort, International Premium Coffee Corporation (IPCoffees), which worked directly with farmers to bring specialty coffee from Mexico to the US. Michael continues to surround himself with all aspects of music to this day, while inspiring others to do the same and find their own personal relationship with music. Michael currently lives in Tucson, Arizona, with his amazing wife and likewise two fast growing teenage boys.
Curriculum Vitae
bilingual English/Spanish
Education
1/93 - 5/96 B.A. Music Composition ’96 with Honors University of Arizona Tucson, Arizona
8/90 - 11/91 Guitar Performance / Music University of Arizona Tucson, Arizona
6/89 - 5/90 General Studies / Humanities Glendale Community College Glendale, Arizona
9/88 - 12/89 Civil Engineering / Music Arizona State University Tempe, Arizona
10/87 - 6/88 G.E.D. Dean’s List with Honors ‘88 Agua Fria Union High School Avondale, Arizona
11/86 - 2/87 Historical Studies Alexander Muss High School In Israel Hod Ha Sheron, Israel
Experience
1/14 – 10/17 International Premium Coffee Corporation Secretary Sales Officer Tucson, Arizona
Imported and sold green specialty coffee direct from Mexico into the United States
6/11 – Present Similar Self Head Developer Tucson, Arizona
Track reoccurring life patterns using golden mean proportion probabilities
6/10 - 3/13 Borderland Enterprises International Sales Manager Tucson, Arizona
Sales Rep exporting construction equipment to Latin America
6/07 - Present White Wizard Productions Producer & Composer Tucson, Arizona
First ever audio visual 260 day Maya Calendar presentation
Art Renneisance Innitiative Commission for requiem
7/04 - 7/05 Small World Kindergarden & Preschool Kinder Garden Teacher Tian-Jin, China
Head supervising kindergarten teacher at English speaking school
Developed/Implimented curriculumn for 2 classrooms and 6 teachers
1/04 – 6/04 DNA Communications DL Administrator Tucson, Arizona
Developed distance learning categorization models for quality control
11/02 - 6/04 Tucson Unified School District Elementary School Teacher Tucson, Arizona
Working as a stand in for long term Elementary School teaching positions
1/97 - 1/00 Imaginarium now OMA (TUSD) Guest Artist / Teacher Tucson, Arizona
Fine arts education program for Elementary School children
6-8/93 & 94 Navajo Trails Ranch Counselor & Trip Leader Bicknell, Utah
Head coordinator in an outward-bound adventure camp for kids
5/92 - 12/92 The Edron Academy Elementary School Teacher Mexico City
Assistant to nine teachers with over 150 bilingual children
Led group activities (Music, Art, Physical Education)
7/91 – Present Musical Colors President Tucson, Arizona
Developer of a music system for visual learners using color coded musical instruments
Awards
7/02 - 7/02 Tokyo Opera City Cultural Foundation 3rd Prize Toru Takemitsu Orchestral Competition, Tokyo, Japan
Developments
6/03 - 10/03 Created Categorization Model for Distance Learning Administrators (Communications Company)
