Michael Haslam, keyboard (London), won a scholarship to read music at Christ Church, Oxford University and continued his studies at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, where he became Professor of Ensemble Singing. For the Royal National Theatre, Michael has been Musical Director for Play Without Words (Olivier Award for Best Entertainment), Honk! The Ugly Duckling (Olivier Award for Best New Musical), The Wind In The Willows, and The Rose Tattoo, among others. He also conducted performances of Sunday In The Park With George, Sweeney Todd and The Resistible Rise Of Arturo Ui. For the Donmar: Good, Habeas Corpus and Into The Woods. In the West End, he has been Musical Director for La Cage Aux Folles, Stephen Fry’s Cinderella at the Old Vic, Maureen Lipman’s Live & Kidding and Maria Friedman’s one woman show By Extra Special Arrangement (Olivier Award for Best Entertainment), among others. He also conducted the orchestra on Maria Friedman’s debut solo album. He was Assistant Musical Director on The Producers at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. Michael was Musical Director for Will Tuckett’s Pleasure’s Progress at the Royal Opera House Linbury Studio, The Secret Garden in Edinburgh Festival Theatre and the Royal Alexandra Theatre, Toronto and Gypsy at Curve, Leicester. He has been Musical Director for four Sondheim musicals at RADA, Betty Blue Eyes and The Concrete Jungle at ArtsEd and Production Musical Director for the UK tour of High Society. For BBC Radio 4 he composed and performed the signature music for Murder On The Orient Express and Sad Cypress, and composed incidental music for The Governor’s Consort by Peter Tinniswood. He was featured as accompanist on the Words In Music BBC Radio 4 quiz show hosted by the late Denis Quilley. Michael was musical director and arranger for a private theatrical entertainment for HM Queen Elizabeth II and the Royal Family at St. James’s Palace to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Coronation. He accompanied Maria Friedman for her residencies at The Carlyle in New York and was pianist and Musical Director for Strange How Potent, an evening of Music Hall and Vaudeville songs starring Linda Thompson and Martha Wainwright at the Lyric, Hammersmith. In addition to his work in theatre, Michael is also dedicated to playing the classical repertoire and has performed and accompanied many recitals in London and Europe, giving the first performance of the Philip Marshall Piano Concerto in Lincoln Minster. As a founder-member of Commedia, a flute, cello and piano trio, he won the Park Lane Group Young Musicians award and he plays organ and harpsichord continuo for the Woodmansterne Collection. For three years Michael was a member of Piano Circus, with whom he made five CDs, and he has recorded, in Berlin, Stravinsky’s Les Noces for Decca with Vladimir Ashkenazy.