Michael Stearns
Michael grew up in Tucson, Arizona, and began playing guitar at an early age. His first performances as a teenager were with the surf band “The Breakers” and then in the band as an opening act for “The Lovin’ Spoonful” and “Paul Revere & the Raiders”.
During his college years he studied electronic music synthesis and the physics of musical instruments while starting a studio in Tucson.
In 1975 he moved to Los Angeles and became a resident musician and composer at Emilie Conrad’s Continuum studio joining Gary David (The Sound of Feeling), Fred Stofflet and Don Preston (The Mothers of Invention).
His first solo recordings were “Desert Moon Walk” and “Sustaining Cylinders” in 1977 followed by his first LP “Ancient Leaves” in 1978 and “Morning Jewel” in 1980.
During that time he began working with Craig Huxley, first as a collaborator in the ‘free jazz’ group “Alivity” and then working on film projects at Craig’s first incarnation of The Enterprise studio.
His album “Planetary Unfolding” was released in 1981 and in 1982 he worked with film composer Maurice Jarre on 4 films at The Enterprise.
In 1983 he collaborated with artist George Landry on the art installation “Lyra Sound Constellation” and began work on Ron Fricke’s IMAX film “Chronos”. “Chronos” was his first solo film score, released in 1985.
The following years thru the 1990’s and into the 2000’s he scored and produced soundtracks to 22 IMAX films and Ron Fricke’s “Sacred Site” and “Baraka”. “Baraka” went on to win numerous international awards.
He also produced the special venue soundtracks to Universal’s “Earthquake, the Ride”, “Back to the Future, the Ride” and Paramount’s “Star Trek, the Adventure”.
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During that time he released “Lightplay”, “M’ocean”, “Plunge”, “Floating Whispers”, “Encounter”, “Desert Solitaire” with Kevin Braheny & Steve Roach, “Sacred Site”, “Singing Stones” with Ron Sunsinger, “Kiva” with Ron Sunsinger and Steve Roach, “The Lost World”, “Within the Nine Dimensions”, “The Middle of Time”, “Spirits of the Voyage”, “The Storm”, “Sorcerer” with Ron Sunsinger, “Music for the Dome”, “The Soft Touch of Morning Light”, “Maya Skies”, “Convergence” with Erik Wallo, “Beyond Earth & Sky” with Steve Roach, “Beyond Chaos” and “Sounds Searching for People” with Christian Halten.
In 2011 with Lisa Gerrard and Marcello de Francisci he scored Fricke’s “Samsara” and in 2014 traveled with Ron to the Middle East on an installation project for the National Museum of Qatar.
Most recently Michael has composed the score for Julius Horstuis’s “Beyond Chaos” (http://www.julius-horsthuis.com), a 3D fractal show for Experimenta, one of Europe’s largest domes.