Composer of Us and Get Out

Michael Abels is an African-American composer known for his orchestra works Global Warming, Delights & Dances, and Urban Legend, and choral pieces such as Be The Change and Limitless.  With a “keen ear for musical color and a deft ability to adapt structural elements from popular music into the symphonic idiom” (Houston Chronicle), Michael Abels has gained widespread recognition for his orchestral music.  Global Warming and Delights & Dances have both been recorded by the Chicago Sinfonietta for the Cedille label.

Best known for combining classical music with African-American jazz, blues, bluegrass and ethnic genres, Michael was asked by writer/director Jordan Peele to compose the music for Get Out.  “I wanted Michael Abels, who did the score, to create something that felt like it lived in this absence of hope but still had [black roots],” Peele said in a recent interview for GQ. He also scored Peele’s most recent film, Us, which premiered at SXSW.

Born in Phoenix, AZ, Abels attended the University of Southern California, studying with James Hopkins and Robert Linn.  Later he studied West African music with Alfred Ladzekpo at the California Institute for the Arts. He currently serves as Director of Music for New Roads School in Santa Monica.

Michael is a past recipient of grants and commissions from the National Endowment for the Arts, Meet The Composer, LA Opera, and many orchestras throughout the country.  In his concert career he has worked with James Earl Jones, Doc Severinsen, and a diverse group of other musical artists.  Abels also wrote the score for Fantasea at Chicago’s Shedd Aquarium.

Listen to the soundtrack for Us.

Watch the trailer for Us.

This episode of The Pop Disciple Podcast is hosted by Paul Goldowitz.

Production, Editing, Mixing, Mastering | Paul Goldowitz
Research | Ruby Gartenberg, Paul Goldowitz
Select Cues Throughout Episode | Michael Abels
The Pop Disciple Podcast Theme and Outro Music | Paul Goldowitz

Special thanks to Michael Abels and Costa Communications.