Michael Drewes
Lives in USA, United States
Michael Drewes was born in Germany and moved with his family to Mexico City at age fourteen, where he lived for twenty-six years. His youthful interests centered on drawing, sculpting and designing buildings. He received his Bachelors degree in Architecture and his Masters in Art History from the National Autonomous University of Mexico, and his Ph. D. in Architectural History from the University of Kaiserslautern, Germany.
Drewes became curious about music in his mid-teens and learned to play the cello in school at that time, with Dante Barzanò, Paolo Salvi and Guillermo Helguera. It was his only formal music training. Most musical knowledge was self-taught, sometimes under the guidance of experts, such as Helmut Koch, Josefina Alvarez Ierena, Ana Isabel Berlin, Rudolf Ducke, Armando Zayas, Mario Kuri Aldana, Felipe Ramírez, Arturo Cisneros and Charlotte Kaminsky.
As he started college, his mild interest became more intense, and he studied music theory, harmony and composing on his own. Musical ideas began to come to him, and he would write them down, sometimes with the aid of a neighbor's piano, and sometimes right from his head to paper - even symphonies - which he never heard, since orchestral facilities were not within his reach.
He started his career with Mexico's Monuments Office, supervising restoration of church organs. He continued to compose music, and filled notebooks of unplayed works.
In 1985 Drewes moved to Israel, inspiring him to create different and more modern sounds, although his signature style continued to be basic classical harmonies. After eleven years living in Jerusalem (1985-1996), where he earned his living as restoration expert at the archaeological dig in Beit She'an, he and his American wife, whom he met in Israel when she made aliyah, moved to Miami for family reasons. Musical ideas continued non-stop, and he went on to write them down. Although he currently makes his living as a translator, he dreams of being able to make his music live and breathe.
Please note his articles on Mexican baroque pipe organs in English, in ''The Organ Yearbook,'' Vols. XIII (1982), XIV (1983), XVI (1985), XIX (1988), XXVII (1997) and XXVIII (1998/99), and in Spanish, in ''Anales del Instituto de Investigaciones Estéticas,'' Mexico, Vol. XIII, No. 49 (1979), Vol. XIII, No. 51 (1983), Vol. XIV, No. 54 (1984) and Vol. XV, No. 60 (1989).
NOTE: From time to time I review my scores. When I discover a flaw, I resubmit the corrected score in question. I apologize for the inconvenience.
Most of my works for string orchestra can also be performed by string quartet (omitting the double bass, of course).
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