Michael Udow, composer and percussionist, has composed five operas, film scores, orchestral and wind ensemble works, chamber music, and solo compositions. Michael's distinctive compositional voice eludes categorization. His rhythmically engaging contrapuntal lines, often woven with dense timbres, blend effortlessly with memorable melodies. A Fulbright-Hays Fellow, Michael served as Composer-in-Residence with the Colorado Chamber Orchestra. He was inducted into the Percussive Arts Society Hall of Fame, and received the Society's Lifetime Achievement in Education Award. 

Michael has been a full-time member of The Santa Fe Opera, the New Orleans Philharmonic, Summit Brass, the Blackearth Percussion Group, Tone Road Ramblers, Keiko Abe with Galaxy, and Keiko Abe with M.C.P.

After a distinguished career with The Santa Fe Opera (Principal Percussion, 1968–2009) and the University of Michigan (1982–2011), where he is Emeritus Professor of Music, Michael continues to present short-term percussion and composition residencies at conservatories and universities around the world, including Japan, China, and Korea.

His principal composition teachers included Warren Benson, Herbert Brün, Edwin London, Thomas Fredrickson, Paul Steg, and Włodzimierz Kotoński. He also credits Salvatore Martirano, Ben Johnston, Gordon Binkerd, Morgan Powell, Neely Bruce, and Michael Colgrass for their invaluable artistic influence. Michael's percussion education began with Doc Meyer and continued with Bob Lee, F. Michael Combs, Jack McKenzie, Frederick Fairchild, Russell Hartenberger, Michael Ranta, Alan Abel, and his University of Illinois percussion professor, Thomas Siwe, with whom he earned the BM, MM, and DMA degrees.

Born in Detroit, Michigan, in 1949, Udow began his musical studies as a pianist before gravitating to percussion. At age eleven, his family moved to Wichita, Kansas, where he joined the Wichita Youth Symphony. During his first rehearsal, with Roger Roller conducting George Enescu's Romanian Rhapsody, Udow recalls being overwhelmed by the orchestra's extraordinary sonic world. This transformative experience set the course of his musical life. He later attended four summers at the National Music Camp at Interlochen, where his percussion teacher, Jack McKenzie, encouraged him to compose. At the Interlochen Arts Academy, Michael began his formal composition studies with Warren Benson.

Arriving at the University of Illinois in the fall of 1967, Michael found himself immersed in one of the most innovative musical environments in the country. John Cage's monumental Music Circus was taking place, and Michael performed Ben Johnston's Knocking Piece with Jocy de Oliveira in synchronization with an animated film of its polyrhythms. He also performed Morton Feldman's King of Denmark with dancers from the Merce Cunningham Dance Company improvising to the music. These experiences marked the beginning of a remarkable artistic education through constant interaction with composers, dancers, and fellow musicians. As an undergraduate, Michael received a BMI Student Composer Award for his composition Seven Textural Settings of Japanese Haiku. After performing with the New Orleans Philharmonic and completing a Fulbright-Hays Fellowship in Poland, he returned to the United States to tour with the pioneering Blackearth Percussion Group. He subsequently returned to the University of Illinois as a Creative Arts Fellow, where he continued his studies in composition and percussion, earning his Master of Music degree and, in 1978, becoming the first recipient of the Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Percussion Performance from the University of Illinois.

Throughout summers performing at the opera and winters devoted to teaching, Udow continued composing operas, orchestral works, wind ensemble music, chamber works, and solo compositions, now published by American Composers Alliance.