Biography

Michael Kiley is a Philadelphia based composer, sound designer, performer and educator working in dance, theatre and public installation. Michael creates his own work under the moniker The Mural and The Mint (TM&TM). In 2010, TM&TM created As the Eyes of the Seahorse, an interdisciplinary performance of dance and live music which premiered at HERE Arts Center in New York. 2013 marked the release of The Empty Air and Animina, two soundwalk pieces delivered through iPhone applications which use GPS to determine what the listener hears depending on their location within Rittenhouse Square and The Race Street Pier, respectively. Michael also released Kuerner Sounds in 2013, a commission from The Brandywine River Museum to be heard during a tour of The Kuerner Farm, which inspired painter Andrew Wyeth. In 2014, The American Composers Forum selected him to write With Happiness For You, World a piece for two voices, percussion and synthesizer, inspired by the poetry of a teenage immigrant from Karen State. The piece was performed as part of the If You Could Hear These Walls series, a program of ACF and Philadelphia Mural Arts. He was also in residence at The Hacktory, where he learned to write computer code resulting in two gallery pieces, In(determinate) Duet and Elegy For A Home. He created Close Music for Bodies, an immersive, participatory voice piece for the 2017 curated FringeArts Festival. In 2018, he released his third geo-locative soundwalk, Grindstone Devotional, while in residence with Mural Arts Philadelphia. He teaches workshops in a voice/movement practice of his own design, Personal Resonance, in group settings and in his private studio.

Recently, Michael produced, recorded, mixed, edited, sound designed, and composed for TrailOff, a series of 10 geo-locative soundwalks made in collaboration with Swim Pony and The Pennsylvania Environmental Council. He has toured with choreographer Faye Driscoll, performing Thank You For Coming: Attendance all over the world. Michael has also worked as designer/vocal consultant with Chelsea Murphy and Magda San Millan on The Shame Symposium (FringeArts, June 2016). He served as vocal consultant during the process of luciana achugar’s Otro Teatro in 2014. Other collaborators include Lars Jan, Dan Rothenberg, Nichole Canuso Dance Company, The Arden Theatre, The Acting Company, People’s Light and Theater, Theatre Exile, The Wilma Theatre, and The Play Company, among others.

Michael has been supported by The Pew Center for Arts and Heritage, The Independence Foundation, The Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, The American Composers Forum-Philadelphia Chapter, The Hacktory, FringeArts (Live Arts Brewery Fellowship), Philadelphia Music Project (PCAH) and the Wyncote Foundation through The Painted Bride. His work has been heard at The Walker Art Center, ICA Boston, MCA Chicago, 3LD, Walkerspace, The Performing Garage, Festival d’Autumn, The Wexner Center, The Guthrie Theater, Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center, The Yard, Vermont Performance Lab, MANCC, and DanSpace Project.