Michael Workman has lived his life in the world of music. He studied piano from the age of 5 and performed regular recitals. He also liked to sing and at the age of 8, performed as the youngest member of the world renown Texas Boys Choir out of Ft. Worth, TX. He studied and performed on violin, trumpet, and baritone horn in grade school through high school. At 13, he took up the guitar and formed and performed in bands as a lead guitar and vocalist. He came back to the keyboard at 16 and has performed since as a keyboards player and vocalist.
Michael studied piano and arranging & composition at the Berklee College of Music in Boston; piano and composition at the New England Contemporary School of Music in Boston; and piano, orchestration, and electronic music at the University of Miami. Piano studies were under Ray Santisi (Berklee) and Vince Lawrence-Maggio (UofM). He studied classical piano privately with Everett Kourian of Boston, voice privately with Elizabeth Phinney in Boston, and orchestration privately with Dr. William Thornton of Trinity University in San Antonio.
Making a living as a musician in small and large bands, he also spent time in recording studios with numerous original music projects that began while he was still in school. His most prominent gig was as a member of the Dickey Betts and Great Southern band and he can be found on the 1978 album, “Atlanta’s Burning Down.” After Great Southern split up, he moved to San Antonio in late 1979. He performed and recorded with some of the more popular South Texas bands of the early 1980s, including as Messenger, Snapshot, Blackrose, and The Reach.
Michael was choir director of the 50 piece male choir at the St Anthony Seminary High School in San Antonio from 1987-1991 where he selected the choir membership, planned and prepared all material for masses and concerts. He programmed all accompanying music on a Yamaha QX-1 digital music sequencer (now a dinosaur) that allowed him to freely conduct the choir.
From 1992 until the present, he has performed with San Antonio’s Cleartones, a variety band specializing in conventions and weddings. Besides keyboards and vocals, he has contributed arrangements for the 8-piece band. Michael started spreading his work on in 2007-2008 to play as a sideman with numerous acts such as Rick Cavender (country variety), The Original Second Nature (R&B), The Psychedelic Jukebox (60’s & 70’s radio rock), The Neon Shakers (70’s & 80’s radio rock), and Audiomouth (70’s & 80’s radio rock).
Since 2010, Michael has performed in a duo with Bob Charles and have played weekly at La Hacienda de Los Barios. The music style is acoustic classic rock and blues. The two also join forces with Blackrose/Reach member Scott Byers as Netherlands.
Michael is a pianist, an electronic keyboardist, a vocalist, a composer, an arranger.