Michael Frazier

  • Assistant Professor of Composition

Areas of Study

Education

  • BM, acoustic and electronic composition, University of South Florida, 2014
  • MA, musical composition, Eastman School of Music, 2016
  • PhD, musical composition, Eastman School of Music, 2021

Biography

Michael Frazier is a Black and Latino composer specializing in acoustic, electronic, and electroacoustic music who is invested in exploring a musical language that has a connection to a broader history of Black creative artistry. Heavily influenced and inspired by his love of jazz and hip-hop music, Frazier’s compositional style incorporates a dense, expansive tonal language juxtaposed with freer approaches to melody and structural organization, often born in the expression of musical improvisation in various forms. At the forefront, Frazier’s music relies on gesture, harmony, slowness, and patience.

Beyond composition, Frazier’s interests in music and sound include the unique and personal expression of one’s musical voice, engagement with topics and aesthetics outside one’s musical familiarity or awareness, and the capacity for a music that can be approached by listeners of all backgrounds. Additionally, Frazier has a strong passion for forward-thinking music-making and creativity that acknowledges and embraces one’s cultural identity, especially those of historically underrepresented groups.

Frazier’s music has been widely performed and presented by groups such as Strings & Hammers, OSSIA New Music, Musica Nova, Trio Alexander, Musique 21, Detroit Chamber Winds & Strings, and Birds on a Wire, and has been featured in venues around the world.

He has also adjudicated composition competitions including the America Viola Society’s Maurice Gardner Composition Competition, the Bowling Green State University Competitions in Composition and Music Performance, and the Local 4 Music Fund "She Scores" 2023.

Frazier earned a master’s degree and PhD in music composition at the Eastman School of Music, where he was also the recipient of numerous awards in composition, including the Howard Hanson Ensemble Prize and the Wayne Brewster Barlow Prize.

Fall 2024

Principal Private Study - Composition — PVST 027
Secondary Private Study - Composition — PVST 077
Composition for Non-Majors — COMP 101
Instrumentation — COMP 211

Spring 2025

Principal Private Study - Composition — PVST 027
Secondary Private Study - Composition — PVST 077
Composition for Non-Majors — COMP 101
Composition II — COMP 202
Composition Seminar II — COMP 252

News

Meet the Conservatory’s Newest Tenure-Track Faculty

October 4, 2023

Five members of the conservatory faculty have been granted tenure-track positions beginning this academic year. They span the disciplines of music theory , composition , trombone , and TIMARA —...

Students, Faculty Participate in Detroit's Resonate Symposium

April 14, 2023

Two years in the making, Oberlin Conservatory students and faculty are in midtown Detroit, April 14-15, to participate and perform in the Resonate Chamber Music Symposium , held at The Carr Center —an organization dedicated to showcasing Black arts and artists.