Michael Leibowitz  (b. 1981) is a contemporary classical composer celebrated for his innovative contributions to chamber and vocal music. His works have been described as “hauntingly beautiful and unpredictable,” captivating audiences with their emotional depth and intricate textures. He studied formally at the Longy School of Music, Oberlin Conservatory, and the University of the Arts, working with composers Howard Frazin, Randolph Coleman, Lewis Nielson, and Andrea Clearfield. 

Michael has had works performed and commissioned by numerous performers and ensembles including pianists Kimberly and Michelle Cann and Karen Burgman, the Jasper String Quartet, The Borderlands Ensemble, Lancaster Chamber Singers, Philadelphia Opera on Tap, The Perspective Collective, baritone Michael Weyandt, cellists Arlen Hlusko and Timothy Leonard, violist Kristina Giles, clarinetist Christopher Nichols, flutist Yulia Musayelyan, and saxophonists Jonathan Hulting-Cohen and Crystal Alexander Duckett.

Renowned pianist Michelle Cann is a frequent commissioner and champion of Michael’s music. She has performed Michael’s Piano Suite extensively, including multiple performances at the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia. Michelle and her sister Kimberly Cann’s piano duo has commissioned and premiered numerous works of Michael’s, including Let My People Go, for two pianos, which was performed at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., and Three Excursions, for 4-hand piano.

Michael has collaborated on many pieces with lyricist Jeremy Basescu. Their choral work, What If Now?, is the winner of the 2026 American Choral Directors Association of Pennsylvania Choral Composition Competition, and One Last Seed is a current finalist in the Ithaca College Choral Composition Festival. Michael and Jeremy’s three-act opera, For Love of Country, has been performed in Philadelphia, Asheville, and Tucson, and a professional recording will soon be available. Michael and Jeremy have also written a large number of art songs for performers including Michael Weyandt, Audra Casebier, Erin Brittain, Shaun McGrath, Rachael Ditri, Madison Boyer, and Grant Mech.

Badlands, written for horn player Johanna Lundy and her Borderlands Ensemble, has been performed extensively by the group as well as professionally recorded, and is available to stream and download through the Imaginary Animals record label. Badlands is also arranged for horn and piano, horn and string quartet, and horn and string orchestra. The horn and orchestra version was most recently performed by Johanna in Guatemala.

Inspired by his Jewish ancestry, Michael has written several works that reference Jewish themes. His Three Songs on Poems of Yehuda Amichai, commissioned by Rebecca Sacks, quote Jewish folk songs to bring the Israeli poet's work to life. Sephardic Hymn and Dances, for viola and piano, is inspired by Sephardic modes, rhythms, and melodies. Additionally, Michael is currently working on a song cycle for mezzo, clarinet, violin, cello, and piano, setting translations of works by Jewish poets in Poland who were killed in the Holocaust. This project has the support of Dave Moskovitz and Miri Koral, the webmaster and translator of the website “The Song Remains” (www.thesongremains.org), which has collected and translated these poems.

One of Michael’s instruments is the cello, and he has written several works for strings. A Place By the Sea was written for the celebrated Jasper String Quartet. Variations on a Theme of Elgar, for solo cello, was written for Arlen Hlusko and premiered virtually during the COVID-19 pandemic. It was also performed live in Philadelphia a few years later. The Sonata for Cello and Piano was written for Tim Leonard and Cathy Mazza. It was featured at composer Andrea Clearfield’s Salon in Philadelphia, and the last movement was selected to be performed by members of the Allentown Symphony Orchestra in one of their New Chamber Music recitals. Three Pieces for String Orchestra was written for the Riverside Community String Ensemble, a mixed-age community string orchestra, and is due to be premiered in October. The orchestra will include two of Michael’s children, Harrison and Oliver, on violin and cello respectively.

In 2025, Michael received a grant from the Philadelphia Musical Fund Society to compose a new piece for the player organ at Glen Foerd Mansion in Philadelphia. This piece, performed entirely by machine, was programmed by organ engineer Sean O’Donnell, and now lives at the Glen Foerd Mansion, where it can be heard upon request.

No stranger to writing for woodwinds as well, Michael’s Sonata for Clarinet and Piano, commissioned by Christopher Nichols, and Sonata for Flute and Piano, written for Yulia Musayelyan, are both scheduled to be premiered in the near future.

Michael has taught at the John H. Taggart School, a K-8 public school in South Philadelphia, for the past 18 years. Michael also teaches a select group of students privately. He specializes in teaching students to be creative through music, either by helping them find their own interpretation when performing existing works, or by creating their own music through improvisation or composition.

Michael lives outside Philadelphia with his wife and three children, all of whom are musicians as well.