FACULTY & STAFF
Michael Vargas
Musician and Lecturer
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Office: 27 Belmont Avenue #203 |  |
585–3243 |
Mike Vargas began playing music in 1959. Since then, his curiosity has led him through many contexts, from cocktail lounges in Indonesia to underground clubs in New York, from the Kennedy Center to cancer wards, from Grimm's fairy tales to Playback Theater. In addition to his ongoing pure music work, Vargas started specializing in music for dance in 1978, and since then has composed well over 100 commissioned dance scores. Vargas has taught people of all ages about music and improvisation—privately, in colleges and universities, and in public schools. He has also worked extensively as an accompanist, improvising music for many styles of dance for nearly 30 years.
Vargas has been working closely with Nancy Stark Smith, teaching and performing in workshops and festivals. His music (with and without dance) has recently been heard across the United States, in Canada, Germany, England, Estonia, Italy, Spain, Holland, Austria, France and Australia. In 2003, he published an article on composition in Contact Quarterly. Vargas has released six CDs of his music, available on cdbaby.com and cdemusic.org.
