Michele Fiala

Michele Fiala is a proponent of new music that crosses genre barriers, incorporating jazz, rock, and world music into the classical idiom. Her performances often include multimedia works and pieces that incorporate ordinary sounds into music. She performs these alongside works from the Baroque, Classical, and Romantic periods. Michele interacts with and engages audiences during her concerts to help them understand the connections between these styles.

Michele Fiala has performed throughout the United States, Italy, and Canada as a soloist and with the Banff Summer Music Festival, Louisville Orchestra, Phoenix Symphony, Orchestra Nashville, Lee Ann Rimes, Roberta Flack, Trey Anastasio, and Barry Williams. Her recent solo CD, The Light Wraps You: New Music for Oboe (on MSR Classics, www.msrcd.com), has received critical acclaim in the Americal Record Guide and on critic Steve Smith’s blog “Night by Night.” Michele also appears on recordings on Centaur and d'Note Records. She has commissioned works by American composers Phillip Bimstein, Susan Kander and Michael Kallstrom, Italian Fulvio Caldini, and Canadian Beverly Lewis.  

Michele often collaborates with pianist Donald Speer as Due Fiamme: The Fiala/Speer Duo. Michele is currently Assistant Professor of Oboe, Bassoon, and Music Theory at Western Kentucky University. She holds DMA and MM degrees from Arizona State University and a BM from the University of Kentucky.