Mike Caudill is a Boston-based performer, composer, arranger, and educator.
A member of several projects and collectives performing across New England and New York, Mike leads his own quartet, plays saxophone and electric wind instrument in the jazz-fusion group City of Four, and performs with the Interconnections Ensemble, led by 2018 Guggenheim Foundation Composition Fellow, Felipe Salles. Mike has played in historic venues, including Boston’s Symphony Hall, as well as in jazz venues like Birdland, Dizzy’s Club, and The Jazz Gallery, in New York City, and Sculler’s Jazz Club in Boston.
As a student, Mike has had the opportunity to perform on stage with iconic jazz figures like Sean Jones, Warren Wolf, Ambrose Akinmusire, Randy Brecker, Dick Oatts, Dave Liebman, Sheila Jordan, Chico Pinheiro, and Karrin Allyson, among others. Mike has also performed with groups in other genres, including with the acclaimed rock group 10,000 Maniacs.
Mike’s piece, “The Wanderer,” was selected in Jâca’s most recent Emerging Composers Competition, and his jazz ensemble piece, “That Familiar Connection,” was awarded first place in Ithaca College’s 2019 Jazz Ensemble Composition Contest. Mike has also received a Herb Alpert Foundation Young Jazz Composer award from ASCAP for his composition, “Time to Go.” Through the course of his college studies, Mike accumulated five music awards from DownBeat Magazine for his performances and musical arrangements. Mike is a commissioned composer of jazz, chamber, and symphonic music.
A graduate of the University of Massachusetts Amherst, Mike holds a Master of Music in Jazz Arranging and Composition. He earned his bachelor’s degrees at UMass in Jazz and Afro-American Music as well as Acoustics. At UMass, Mike studied with Felipe Salles, Lynn Klock, Jeffrey W. Holmes, and Tom Giampietro. Mike’s early saxophone mentors include William DiNuzzio and Corey Tunnessen.
In addition to his own studio, Mike teaches at Groton Hill Music.
