michael vincent waller born october 26 1985 in staten island new york is an american composer of contemporary classical music he has studied with la monte young marian zazeela and bunita marcushis recent compositions have been compared to erik satie claude debussy maurice ravel keith jarrett and morton feldman blending elements of minimalism impressionism gamelan world music and melodic classicism his piano works have been described as evoking debussy but refracted through a 21st century prism reviewer brian olewnick summarizes wallers music has centered around a kind of melodic classicism the source of which i struggle to ascertain critic harry rolnick in reviewing a performance of his string trio per la madre e la nonna 2012 the harmonies were like something written by dvork perhaps his cypresses but they were obvious originalhis chamber works feature a rich lyricism and counterpoint described by steve smith of the new york times as sweetly lyrical and pensive in the october 2014 issue of the brooklyn rail george grella highlighted waller as an emerging unique artist in new york who deserves more critical attention and to be heard by larger audiences the fruits are heard on an ep released early this year five easy pieces piano works played by megumi shibata and jenny q chai the music is subtly affecting and shows his roots in bartk and debussy without ever casting a shadow over his own voice and vision wallers early work was heavily focused on the avantgarde with his use of microtonality just intonation new abstract forms extensive glissandi and isolated sonorities around frequent silences during this period he also composed electroacoustic music with monolithic drones and interference beats and overall features appreciation for slow durations exotic harmonic relationships and processbased phenomenon his postminimal chamber works have been performed by members of the sem ensemble and flux quartet performing at venues such as issue project room and carnegie hallhe also curates an avantgarde program in new york city the newideas musicseries with composers phill niblock elliott sharp a duo with david first and many more performing he was written up in timeout classical composer and visual artist michael vincent waller who also happens to be a protg of la monte young and marian zazeela opens the second season of the pluggedin newmusic series