Michael G. Rose profile picture

Michael G. Rose

About Me

I am a pianist and composer and perform music based mainly in the Celtic and Scandinavian traditions, though other styles have been known to sneak in with some regularity. Long nights in jazz and salsa clubs have left their mark. Apparently there is also still a bit of a ’Boston accent’ in my playing, though I’ve been living in Copenhagen for a while. I’m also learning to play the mandolin in order to figure out why fiddlers complain about the difficulty of my tunes. Hopefully it doesn’t have anything to do with the bowing.

New projects, large and small, on the way. Check back soon ....
Rachel Hair and I have recently collaborated, performing a series of concerts together on harp and piano. Rachel also has a great new solo CD, Hubcaps and Potholes.

I have been one half of the duo Fromseier Rose, with Ditte Fromseier Mortensen on fiddle. Our contrasting styles and temperaments blend to provide a unique take on traditional music. Contradiction, our CD, also features the great Irish singer Niamh Parsons on three tracks. John O’Regan wrote in Irish Music Magazine, "Featuring many original compositions with its cool Nordic ambience, it isn’t your normal traditional CD. Ditte and Michael created an original music style with a strong basis in Irish, Danish and American traditional music and with modern acoustic elements."

You can download more music from the Fromseier Rose website. And, of course, you can

And, whenever we happen to be in the same town at the same time, I do some collaborative composing with Alan Doherty. Alan plays flute with the wonderful Irish band Grada .

My Interests

Music:

Member Since: 3/15/2006
Band Website: michaelgrose.net
Band Members: I’m working on a few different projects with some favorite musicians .... for now you can have a listen toRose + Ó Raghallaigh

    Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh - hardanger fiddle Michael G. Rose -piano
.... more soon ....
Influences: Being a bit of a sponge and scavenger, it's a challenge to separate out different influences. Way way back, when I was too young to appreciate it, I remember being forced to listen to Portuguese Fado music at family gatherings. Now I love the style, the passion and the shifting moods of fado music. My favorite fado singers are Misia and Dulce Pontes.
In high school I got introduced to New England Contra Dancing, which was just beginning a renaissance in the Boston area. Twice a month Ernie Spence would pile a few of us into his station wagon to go to Dudley Laufman's Canterbury Country Dances in New Hampshire. Peter Barnes was my partner in crime in those days. He got me started on classical guitar. And he taught me to play contra dance piano so he could have some accompaniment as he practiced learning his new tune, Fair Jenny's Jig, on fiddle. I was listening to lots of Bert Jansch, Bonnie Raitt, Bothy Band and, a bit later, Capercaille.
There wasn't much folk music happening in Copenhagen when I moved here in the early 90's. But there were several friendly jazz clubs and lots of great jazz musicians. A new world of listening included Niels Lan Doky, Chris Minh Doky, Michel Camillo, Chano Dominguez and the Brecker Brothers. They really stretched my ears out and showed so many different ways to color a picture, if I may be allowed to mix a metaphor.
These days the best way to figure out what subliminal influences are plotting in my subconscious is to spend some time browsing though my friends list, over there on the right side of the page.
Type of Label: None

My Blog

Snapshots of Context

Here are a few snapshots that give an idea of what was happening at the time of Lieve's lovely photo of the Session A9 session that's up just now on the top of her myspace page. The photo is from the ...
Posted by Michael G. Rose on Thu, 06 Sep 2007 10:33:00 PST

New tunes in the player

Here's a taste of what Irish fiddler Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh and I were up to when he was over for a visit a few weeks ago. We played some trad tunes, wrote some new tunes and had a grand time just tr...
Posted by Michael G. Rose on Mon, 02 Jul 2007 01:00:00 PST

German/Swiss tour photos (slightly late)

Well, it's about seven weeks later and the pictures from the St. Patricks Day Festival Tour have finally managed to find their way out of my camera and onto myspace. The 10 day tour through southern G...
Posted by Michael G. Rose on Sat, 12 May 2007 08:37:00 PST

Gourmet Scottish

I had a pleasant surprise while visiting Glasgow to practice with Rachel Hair for our upcoming German tour. After a couple of full days dedicated to arranging and polishing our new sets we decided it ...
Posted by Michael G. Rose on Wed, 07 Mar 2007 12:36:00 PST

Riotous Debut

It was the usual quiet weekend in Copenhagen. Rachel Hair came over from Glasgow for a practice and for our first gig together. I told her what I always tell visitors, Copenhagen is a very peaceful an...
Posted by Michael G. Rose on Mon, 18 Dec 2006 09:19:00 PST

Audio Sketchbook - new tunes with Rachel Hair

I've been admiring how many animators have been taking to posting their ideas and character sketches on the web ( e.g. http://www.cartoonbrew.com/ ), even as the ideas are still under development. It'...
Posted by Michael G. Rose on Thu, 26 Oct 2006 11:20:00 PST

Off to WOMEX

I'm off to Seville for WOMEX, the huge world music trade fair (www.womex.com). I'll be with the other folk musicians from Denmark, at the Danish Folk Council booths (D28, E28, E29) If you're there pl...
Posted by Michael G. Rose on Tue, 24 Oct 2006 02:09:00 PST

Niamh Parsons singing Blantyre Explosion

We're only allowed a minimal amount of info on the songs in the player, so this blog is just to say that Niamh Parsons is singing on Blantyre Explosion. Niamh was wonderfully generous with her time an...
Posted by Michael G. Rose on Sun, 15 Oct 2006 03:28:00 PST

For you Joni, Metheny and Jaco fans

Since a lot of you myspacers are big Pat Metheny fans, here is a little treat I found on the web. It's concert footage of Joni Mitchell singing Coyote. Her band is Pat Metheny, Jaco Pastorius and Don ...
Posted by Michael G. Rose on Sun, 14 May 2006 03:02:00 PST

Dun Do Shuil and more...

The Danish Irish Society here in Copenhagen has been giving out a small travel grant each year, called the Tholstrup award, and it's purpose is to increase cultural exchanges. The singer Sussie B. Nie...
Posted by Michael G. Rose on Thu, 23 Mar 2006 02:43:00 PST