Southern Maine String Quartet

Michael Albert has performed throughout the U.S., Canada, and Europe as a soloist for many orchestras and chamber ensembles on oboe, recorder, baroque violin, and as a countertenor. He has explored several musical styles including baroque, contemporary, celtic, and jazz. On baroque violin and as a countertenor, Michael plays and sings with Miami groups Seraphic Fire and the Firebird Ensemble, and New England groups Ecclesia, Tableau, St. Mary's Schola, and Blue Hill Bach. Michael plays fiddle and whistle with the Beggar Boys celtic band. Michael also subs principal oboe with the Portland and Bangor Symphonies in Maine, and the North Shore Philharmonic Orchestra in Massachusetts, and plays jazz oboe with Initial Ascent, a Toronto-based band. Michael also composes and performs for film scores with Maine composer Jan Broberg Carter. Their scores include the new Hollywood film 'Nocturnal Agony', a short 'The Man With The Spying Glass', and on the PBS documentaries 'Sweet Ambition', 'The Polygamist's Daughter', and 'Swift Justice'. He collaborated with Nashville star, Kathy Mattea on the recording 'A Carolina Christmas at the Biltmore' for NPR in 2009. Michael is on the faculty at Colby College as oboe instructor and early music coach and teaches at the Portland Conservatory of Music in Portland, Maine. Music CD's include from the Beggar Boys; "A Celtic Christmas", "Songs and Dances of the Puritans", "The Earl's Chair", and "A Beggar Boys Christmas" (just finished for the 2012 holiday season!) and from Initial Ascent; "Sentences from the Womb" and "Out this Window".