Michael Torke
American composer Michael Torke (born September 21 1961 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin) writes accessible music influenced by jazz and minimalism. Sometimes described as a post-minimalist, his most postminimal piece is Four Proverbs, in which the syllable for each pitch is fixed and variations in the melody produce streams of nonsense words. His most popular work is probably Javelin, which he composed in 1994, commissioned by the Atlanta Committee for the Olympics in celebration of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra's 50th anniversary season, in conjunction with the 1996 Summer Olympics.
A synaesthete, he is the composer of numerous pieces which include colors in the titles, later made into the suite Color Music.
