Mike Block

About Mike Block …

Hailed by Yo-Yo Ma as the “ideal musician of the 21st Century”, Mike Block is a pioneering multi-genre cello player living in New York City. While studying at the Juilliard School, Mike joined The Silk Road Ensemble as its youngest member, and upon graduation in 2006, also joined Grammy Award winner Mark O'Connor in his Appalachia Waltz Trio.  Since then, Mike has become an in-demand player in many musical genres, and has joined Darol Anger's Republic of Strings, The Knights, The Absolute Ensemble, Sirius String Quartet, yMusic, Bassam Saba's New York Arabic Orchestra, and a duo with Chinese Pipa virtuoso, Yang Wei. As a composer, Mike writes extensively for the Mike Block Band, and has also had his pieces performed at the Tribeca New Music Festival, and the MATA Festival.

A frequent performer in Germany, it was there that Mike played the World Premiere and also recorded Gregor Hubner's Cello Concerto No. 1, which showcases Mike's non-traditional pizzicato and improvisational abilities. Active in NYC’s “New-Music” scene, Mike has also frequently played with the Flux Quartet, Argento New Music Ensemble, and the BQE Project.

Mike has also had the honor to perform with Edgar Meyer, Mike Marshall, Zakir Hussain, Marcel Khaliffe, Goran Bregovic, Michael Doucet, Kayhan Kalhor, Bruce Molsky, Simone Dinnerstein, Dawn Upshaw, Jan Vogler, and has recorded with Lenny Kravitz and Joe Zawinul, among many others. He has played on “Late Night with Conan O'Brian”, NPR's “St. Paul Sunday Morning”, “Regis and Kelly”, VH1, and with Yo-Yo Ma and Allison Krauss on the CBS “Early Show”.

A graduate of the Juilliard School and the Cleveland Institute of Music, Mike's former cello teachers include Richard Aaron, Joel Krosnick, Darrett Adkins, and Carter Enyeart.

Mike also co-created Kreol, a software that turns your computer into a musical instrument that you play by typing KreolMusic.com.