Michael Schelle (b. 1950 in Philadelphia) was raised in northern New Jersey and graduated from NHR High School where, as Captain of the track team, he held the all-state distance records in the javelin, shot put and hammer for three years running. Now, 30+ years running as Composer in Residence and founder / director of the notorious JCA Composers Orchestra (new music ensemble) at Butler University in Indianapolis, he has been 2X nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in Music, a finalist for the International Humour in Poetry Competition (Paris), a published author (film music book), and restaurant critic.

Michael Schelle's music has been commissioned and / or performed by over 350 orchestras, symphonic bands and professional chamber ensembles across the US and abroad including the Chicago Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra, Detroit Symphony, Buffalo Philharmonic, Milwaukee Symphony, the major orchestras of Pittsburgh, Louisville, Cincinnati, Indianapolis, Portland (OR), Dayton, Nashville, Kansas City, Arizona, Honolulu and Springfield (MA), the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, the Manhattan Chamber Orchestra, Cleveland Chamber Symphony, XTET (Los Angeles), Urban Quartet (Phoenix), Voices of Change (Dallas), the Chicago Ensemble ... and internationally by Warsaw Opera, UMFC Modern Ensemble (Warsaw), Kammerorchester Basel (Switzerland), the St. Petersburg (Russia) Chamber Orchestra, the Kremlin Chamber Orchestra (Moscow), Czestochowa Philharmonic (Poland), the Asian Cultural Symphony Orchestra (NYC), the Brno Philharmonic (Czech Republic), Orquesta Sinfonica Nacional (Costa Rica), Koenig Ensemble of London, the Banff Centre (Canada), CoMET (Tokyo), Firenza New Music Festival (Italy), Beijing (China) Opera House, Corona Guitar Kvartet (Copenhagen, Denmark), Zimbabwe Arts Festival, and the Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) Symphonic Wind Ensemble.

He has received composition prizes, grants and awards from over 30 prestigious national arts organizations including the Rockefeller Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, American Symphony Orchestra League (NYC), American Pianists Association, National Band Association (2012 Revelli Composition Prize), the Welsh Arts Council (Cardiff), the Barlow Endowment for Music Composition, the New England Foundation for the Arts, the New York State Arts Council, Arts Midwest, the Great Lakes Arts Alliance, Pi Kappa Lambda Board of Regents 2020 commission, and ArtsFest 2015. He has held extended composition residencies at dozens of leading American universities, conservatories and new music festivals, and at Spoleto USA, Wolf Trap, the MacDowell Colony (NH), and many extended residencies abroad - including the Czech Republic, Austria, Amsterdam, Costa Rica, Poland (Warsaw and Krakow, 2016, 2019), Japan (X3 - Tokyo, Nagoya, Hiroshima) and China. Schelle holds degrees from Villanova University (theatre), the Hartt School of Music (CT), the Trinity College of Music, London, UK, (diploma), and a Ph.D. from University of Minnesota. His composition teachers have included Aaron Copland, Arnold Franchetti, Paul Fetler and Dominick Argento. During the summers of 1998 – 2005, Schelle lived in Los Angeles, writing a film music book (The Score, published in 2000 by Silman-James Press, LA, and translated / published in Korea in 2013) - and working on the original scores for such Hollywood blockbusters (?) as The Mummy, G Men from Hell and Bikini Prison.