BIO
Born in Marietta, Ohio in the 1950′s, Michael Leasure is a guitarist/composer with a massive catalog of ‘categorization defying’, multi-faceted original compositions, featuring work on guitar synthesizer, as well as jazz, classical and acoustic guitars.
His compositions range from pure classical, to full film score, to jazz, to 80′s style pop, and everything in between.
As a teenager, Michael gained admission to Boston’s Berklee School of Music as a guitar major, but his tutors soon noticed his exceptional compositional skills, and offered him employment as a film music composer in the film score department.
This early experience led to a characteristic ‘cinematic’ compositional and performance style with guitar synthesizer.
After graduating magna cum laude from Berklee, with a degree in performance and composition, Michael was offered a scholarship to Ohio University, where he worked on his Master’s degree in composition and electronic music, becoming the first, and youngest, jazz guitar teacher at the university. Inundated with music offers, Michael left Ohio university early to pursue a professional schedule.
Procuring a management/publishing contract with Callico Productions, Michael was introduced to Dr. George Butler of CBS Records, and for the following 5 years Michael composed over 300 pieces of music.
Composition aside, Michael is also an extremely accomplished performer and singer, having formed many bands of his own and having performed alongside such greats as Lionel Hampton, Bob Hope, Phyllis Diller, Spyra Gyra, Carmen McRae and Jeff Lorber.
Music production becoming an interest, Michael formed his Florida based music production company ‘MTL Productions’ in 2001.
Now, in 2024, with new technologies more readily available, and in the unique position of owning his own production company, Michael is currently in the process of remastering many old recordings, as well as producing new ones.
But never far away from composition, Michael now spends a lot of his time composing and recording new music.