Composer and musician

Channel 4's The Piano finalist "A genius...The new Bach" Lang Lang

Composer and musician

Channel 4's The Piano finalist "A genius...The new Bach" Lang Lang

About

Described by world class pianist Lang Lang as ‘A genius...The new Bach’ during his performance on Channel 4’s popular and inspiring programme The Piano, Michael Howell is an extraordinary young composer, singer and pianist from west London, UK. Dealing with the twin challenges of autism and ADHD, Michael is a self-taught pianist (via an iPhone app) and composer who began producing his own unique and engaging works, some created using ‘Echolalian’ (abstract-vocalism), a language he invented to connect the listener to the music in a way that is purely musical and goes beyond linguistic understanding.

Michael established his career with his original vocal and piano piece ‘Great is the Grief’, composed in 2014 and recorded in 2017. Described by BBC News as ‘The autistic musician who makes music with his mind’, Michael subsequently featured in the BBC Three mini-documentary series: ‘Amazing Humans’ in 2018, which focused on his creativity and challenges with autism. The first international recognition of Michael’s talents came with a Japanese television documentary in 2023 by WOWOW. The film, ‘Who I Am Life', was premiered at Yurakucho Asahi Hall, Tokyo, Japan with Michael invited as a special guest performer and speaker.

Michael’s eclectic compositional style has developed from baroque, romantic, jazz and gospel music, and throughout his musical journey he has transformed his artistry into a new dimension of music: unique, set-apart artistically and difficult to categorise, yet always beautiful, engaging and heartfelt.

Michael holds a Music degree (with Honours) from Royal Holloway University.