Michael Taylor is a percussionist and composer residing in Jacksonville, Florida. As a performer, Michael has performed with the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra, the Duluth-Superior Symphony Orchestra, the Duluth Festival Opera, the Brunswick Coastal Symphony of Georgia, and at Carnegie Hall with the UNF Wind Symphony. In 2012, Michael won 1st place in the Quey Percussion Duo Composition Contest with his work “Rhapsody for Vibraphone and Marimba”, which is distributed internationally through HoneyRock Publications. In 2013, Michael performed at the Tapages Festival in Lyon, France with the UMD graduate percussion ensemble. Michael served as percussion faculty for the 2015 UMD International Percussion Summer Camp and the 2016 UNF Summer Camp. Michael has premiered original compositions at the North American Saxophone Alliance Region 6 Conference, including Gone… for Alto Saxophone and Percussion (2010) and Chronometry for Tenor Saxophone and Percussion (2015). In 2015, his composition Impulse for Saxophone duo was premiered at Sax Open: the World Saxophone Congress, in Strasbourg France. Michael recently premiered his largest work to date, Concerto for Percussion Soloist and Wind Symphony (2017). Michael received his B.M. in Music Performance from the University of North Florida, and M.M. at the University of Minnesota-Duluth. Michael is currently an adjunct professor at the University of North Florida, teaching percussion and aural theory.