Michael recorded four piano items (tracks 1, 9, 11 and 16) as a surprise gift for his departing Principal at Western Heights High School, Violet Pelham. Tracks 2 and 14 were also recorded at school for NCEA and feature Bailey Morrison, the Head Girl. This recording of A Thousand Years was played over the outdoor PA system on the day of Michael's funeral, as our family walked through the packed school grounds behind the hearse. Track 3 was recorded at home with his friend Amy Watt from school, who played Moonlight Sonata for Michael to improvise to on his cello. Track 6, also at home, has Michael improvising cello to a recording of himself on the piano, for NCEA. Tracks 4 and 8 were recorded during a family concert at St Luke’s Church, where Michael regularly played the pipe organ.

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Chamber Music Competitions provided the opportunity for tracks 5 (with Anna Lee on violin and Phoebe Cho on piano) and 10 (Anna Lee on violin and Genevieve Lin on piano), played in the Bethlehem College Auditorium. These are just extracts, and the full performances are accessible on the Video page. Michael and his sister Anna performed Track 12 at Height's Creative Concert at school. Track 13, Filmtasia, was intended as a film score and was composed by Michael on his computer for NCEA. Track 15 features Michael’s composition and singing with his band “Knitted Biscuit”, with Adrian Forbes on guitar and Anna Wild on drums. This recording is from the regional 2016 Smokefree RockQuest competitions.

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We warmly thank all the musicians who feature in these tracks with Michael and have allowed us to make these recordings available. We also thank Adam Hague for helping with sourcing tracks and Jenny Lewy for sound engineering, and assisting with this web site.