Michael Betz is a composer, producer, pianist, percussionist, and bass vocalist from Mason City, IA, currently based in the Twin Cities, MN. His compositions are not limited to the concert stage and have appeared in a variety of media, including apps by developer Nathan Tornquist and the YouTube series Chadtronic. As a keyboardist, he is comfortable in a variety of musical contexts and maintains an active performance schedule as a jazz pianist, collaborative pianist, and sideman (recently appearing with the Fringe Pipes and George Faber). He also performs as a solo improvisational synthesizer player and has played Twin Cities experimental music series such as Drone Not Drones, the Tourniquet Noise Series, and Khyber Pass Thursdays. Betz served as principal percussionist in the St. Olaf Band and Orchestra and continues to make appearances with local ensembles, including the Rochester, Wayzata, and Bloomington Symphony Orchestras. As a bass vocalist, he is a section leader with Magnum Chorum and has also sung with MPLS (imPulse), Aliro Voices, and PopUp Choir.
Betz is a recipient of the American Composer Forum’s Jerome Fund for New Music grant, for which he composed his Fantasy for Marimba and Electronics (2025). His orchestra work Enclosure was awarded Honorable Mention in the Minnesota Orchestra Composer Institute. Four of his works have received finalist designation in the ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer Awards. He has also received recognition in calls for scores from the Solo and Chamber Timpanist’s Initiative and Symphony Number One. He has received commissions from the Source Song Festival, Magnum Chorum, St. Olaf College, and Mason City High School, among others. His music has been performed in Europe and the United States and has been heard locally in venues such as Studio Z, the Baroque Room, and the Schubert Club Courtroom Concerts. Performers of his music include Aliro Voices, RenegadeEnsemble, Neoteric Chamber Winds, pianist Mary Jo Gothmann, baritone Alan Dunbar, flutist Yoshi Weinberg, the Vine Orchestra, the St. Olaf Band and St. Olaf Orchestra, Una Vocis Choral Ensemble, the Mason City High School Symphonic Band and Concert Choir (IA), and chamber ensembles from the University of Iowa and Roseville Area High School (MN).
Betz holds a B.M. in Theory and Composition from St. Olaf College, where he studied with Timothy Mahr and Justin Merritt. He also studied composition with David Conte at the EAMA-Nadia Boulanger Summer Institute. Betz is a member of ASCAP and the American Composers Forum.