He studied composition at The Juilliard School and at Yale. Michael's orchestral works have been performed by the Minnesota Orchestra, the Pittsburgh Symphony, the Grand Rapids Symphony, the San Francisco Chamber Orchestra, and the Albany Symphony. His choral pieces include works published by Boosey & Hawkes and G. Schirmer. His one-act opera, Breaking, was commissioned by the Washington National Opera and premiered at The Kennedy Center in 2013. His recent work Quartet was premiered at Carnegie Hall in February 2017. The piece earned him a nomination for the 2018 Pulitzer Prize in Music, for which he was a finalist.