"Mike Curtis is at the forefront of composers who take world music as their inspiration for compositions." Prof. Nicholas Morrison, Utah State University
Mexican, Klezmer, Tango, Jazz, Chinese, Bulgarian, Impish--Mike Curtis absorbs that crazy wonderful musical world out there and brings it home to you. With his arrangements, compositions, and CD's, this talented reed player offers duos, trios, quartets, quintets, and orchestras, all kinds of new global options. Take a listen, watch great groups play, and savor the spice of new sounds and places!
Author/Composer Mike Curtis is already well-known to lots of musicians who play the clarinet, saxophone, bassoon, and oboe. He has written dozens of duos, trios, and quartets published in Europe and the USA and groups like the Budapest Sax Quartet and the Flanders Clarinet Quartet have put them on CD's for the world to enjoy. His music has borrowed heavily from his travels to Eastern Europe, China, Spain, and Mexico.
Raised near San Diego, Mike grew up fishing the rocky shores of Baja. He studied music and won a year-long job with the Mexico State Symphony, with concerts at the glittering Palacio de Bellas Artes and TV performances from Chapultepec Castle. It is said "once the dust of Mexico settles on your heart, you can find rest in no other land," and thus Mike has returned nearly every year, to show friends and family the beauty and the mystery of his favorite places.
Reading the great authors has always been his joy and now comes his own book, Memories of a Musician in Mexico. It is an homage to Mexico and an honest account of his own troubled path to maturity.
"Mike Curtis has built a solid reputation with his fine jazz and ethnic compositions and arrangements...fun compositions to prepare and a treat for the audience as well." Dr. Jon Beebe, THE DOUBLE REED, Oct. 2000
"Anything by Mike Curtis is stellar." Prof. Michelle Gingras, "I Want to Play Klezmer, So Where is the Music? " -Clarinet and Saxophone, Summer 2006 (U.K.)
