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MICHAEL OCCHIPINTI is a versatile sound sculpting guitarist, composer and arranger who has spent decades freely moving between genres such as jazz, chamber music, world music, rhythm and blues, funk, and experimental music. A nine-time JUNO Award nominee celebrated nationally for his fearlessness in imagining and realizing new projects, Michael leads several
acclaimed groups including The Sicilian Jazz Project, Shine On: The Universe of John Lennon, In Orbit (featuring Jeff Coffin and Felix Pastorius), and the JUNO winning 16-piece group NOJO. Michael and singer/pianist Elizabeth Shepherd will be releasing a new songbook album under the name ESMO in June of 2021, and the two are now writing a new album of electronic music.
The range of Michael’s musical interests is best illustrated in the many celebrated individuals and groups Michael has performed with or written music for, including Don Byron, Sam Rivers, The Gryphon Trio, Bruce Cockburn, Ari Hoenig, Pilar, The Cecilia String Quartet, DVSN, Joe Lovano, Quartetto Gelato,The Toronto Symphony, Laila Biali, L’Orchestre national de jazz de Montréal , The Art of Time Ensemble, Avataar, Ray Anderson, Dave Douglas, The 21C Festival of Contemporary Music, and Kenny Wheeler. A tireless musician dedicated to taking Canadian music out into the world, Michael’s groups have performed at The Umbria Jazz Festival (Italy), the Festival Cultural de Zacatecas (Mexico), the Jazz Yatra (India), The Stranger Than Paranoia Festival (Netherlands), and The Jazz Standard (USA).