Hi! I’m Michael Simonelli and I work with music and audio. Welcome and thanks for stopping by!
I wear many different hats — producer, musician, artist, mixing engineer, performer, recording engineer, sound designer, programmer, audio consultant…
Charts & Leisure
Since 2018, I’ve led the audio engineering team at Charts & Leisure working primarily on podcasts. Noteworthy are Tiny Matters, which won a 2022 Signal Awards Silver Winner for Best Science Podcast and The Future of Storytelling Podcast (FoST ), a 2024 Webby nominee for best single episode of an arts and science podcast. I’ve designed audio branding and music for Chanel, The Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library, The Markup, Longreads, and IMDb among others. In 2020, I helped develop remote recording and production practices to launch and sustain a number of shows through the pandemic lockdown, many of which continue to thrive today.
Other Fantasies for Extinction
The Other Fantasies for Extinction Listening Party, a collaboration with Rachel Garber Cole, is a dreamy meditation on Deep Time, past mass extinctions, and the spreading of modern Homo sapiens across the globe. I produced and sound designed a 25 minute audio essay and co-host immersive listening events to encourage communities to collectively discuss their emotional experiences surrounding the climate crisis. You can attend a Listening Party Event, or host one yourself.
Composer
I’ve written music most of my life and go wherever the creative spirit and moment take me. Presently I’m interested in using generative tools to develop and iterate on raw material and exploring different ways to shape and give meaning to these sounds. Two recent albums, Umori (2024) and Heart Hz (2022) are exemplary of this process. You can learn about this work and more here.
Producer
As a producer I help people bring their ideas to life. I have decades of experience as a recording engineer, mixer, producer, and multi-instrumentalist. I’ll go out of my way to help something sound the best it can, especially if it’s a project that I love and I’ve been lucky to work with some amazingly talented musicians and friends over the years. You can find a list of production credits here.
Take a Breath
Take a Breath, in conjunction with Michael Fortenberry, is a collection of sculptures that encourage mindfulness through somatic engagement. I programmed sensors, hidden within Michael’s sculptures, to cue sounds in response to movement. Participants are encouraged to “play” the sculptures like instruments, encouraging somatic dialogue with the piece and creating opportunities for mindfulness and healing.
Education
I have a masters degree in Music Theory and Composition from University of Massachusetts Amherst (2014). My masters thesis “Problem-Solving Pedagogy: A Foundation for Restructuring, Updating, and Improving Undergraduate Theory and Musicianship Curricula” provides an ideological and practical foundation for an improved approach to undergraduate theory and musicianship pedagogy. If you’re here because you’ve come across this paper in your research, please reach out with any questions!
