Michael Bearden

Musical director, keyboardist, and composer Michael Bearden has performed and/or recorded with some of popular music’s biggest names including Madonna, Whitney Houston, Lionel Richie, Chaka Kahn, Patti Austin, James Ingrahm, Babyface, Lenny Kravitz, Yoko Ono, George Benson, Natalie Cole, Sophie B. Hawkins, Anita Baker, Edie Brickell, and legends Nancy Wilson, Stevie Wonder, Aretha Franklin, Liza Minelli and Michael Jackson, to name just a few.

Younger artist such as Brandy, Christina Aguilera, Ricky Martin, Destiny’s Child, D’Angelo, Marc Dorsey, Faith Evans, Brian McKnight, Nicole Renee and Jennifer Lopez have also sought Bearden’s diverse musical skills. He has also written, produced, and performed with such notable jazz artists as Rachelle Ferrell, Herbie Mann, Everette Harp, Will Downing, Nelson Rangell, Marion Meadows, Regina Carter, Noel Pointer, Special EFX, Jonathan Butler, Victor Bailey, Stanley Turrentine and Rachel Z.

An accomplished composer, Bearden’s feature film scores include the Spike Lee- produced film Drop Squad; and independent films The Visit, The Arrangement, and One Week. He has also scored several PSA’s, PBS documentaries, infomercials, and HBO’s Be A Mentor campaign. Most recently, he performed on the score to the box office smash Shaft 2. He recently completed the prestigious ASCAP film-scoring workshop in 2000, where he learned firsthand from top Hollywood composers like James Newton Howard and Alf Clausen.

Additionally, Bearden maintained the principal pianist/keyboardist positions in two Cosby television show bands and is frequently called by Late Show with David Letterman band leader Paul Shaffer whenever he needs a substitute for the CBS broadcast.

Michael Bearden uses M-Audio’s Oxygen8, Omni I/O, Quattro, Studiophile BX8s, Tampa, Radium, Live, Reason, and ArKaos VJ.