Michael Torres

Saxophonist, composer, educator, and curator Michael Rene Torres currently serves as Assistant Teaching Professor at The Ohio State University where he teaches saxophone and composition. He is the founder and Artistic Director of the Columbus Ohio Discovery Ensemble (CODE); a 501(c)3 non-profit contemporary music ensemble that is dedicated to the promotion, performance, and perception of contemporary concert music in Central Ohio. Additionally, Torres serves as the Program Director of the Johnstone Fund for New Music which advances the performance of new music for the benefit of the Central Ohio community. Torres has presented recitals, clinics, and master classes at festivals, conferences, and universities throughout the USA. As an advocate of contemporary music, Torres has extensively commissioned and premiered works for the concert saxophone and is an active chamber musician as a member of the contemporary music ensemble, Tower Duo with flutist Erin Helgeson Torres. Tower Duo has been performing together since 2007 and focuses on the music of living composers. Their debut album, Crosswind, was released by Ravello Records under the PARMA Recordings label in January 2019. A winner of the Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence Award and the Greater Columbus Arts Council Composition Fellowship, Torres' compositional interests are in music that explores the juxtaposition of consonance and dissonance. Torres’ research interests are in studying the current and historical practice of comprehensive musicianship with an emphasis on investigating the mutually beneficial relationship of performing, composing, and improvising music. He is interested in the educational outcomes of incorporating composition and improvisation into the pedagogy of traditional applied classical performance with a belief that practicing basic compositional and improvisational skills can enhance the craft of performing, leading to creative musicianship and innovative interpretive perspective.