Biography
of:
Michael
Dean
Giamo
Michael
Dean Giamo was born and raised in the Philadelphia area. In
his early years Mike became fascinated with art, music,
medicine (he wanted
to be a heart surgeon when he was about four years old), was infatuated
with mountain climates and nature in general, fell in love with the
sea (and, therefore, ships and all manner of sailing vessels), archeology
(especially ancient Greece
and
Egypt) - and at age 6 - pipe organs. While pursuing all of his early
interests as he grew up, by
the
time
he was a teenager (with the help of his multi-talented father)
built
a small 7-rank
pipe
organ in his
parent's
home. As
Mike got older he eventually
combined
many of his interests into
career goals,
all of which
cluminated, with the advent of the digital
age and computers, into his career as a multimedia
producer and web designer. Along
the way Mike was classically trained as a pianist and later as a
pipe organist. He
eventually taught himself to play acoustic guitar, compose multi-tracked
music, and write and perform his own, live, multimedia stage shows. "The Soothsayer's Advice" is the premier CD from composer Michael Dean Giamo. A smooth blend of New Age, Classical, and Jazz motifs, this melodic CD is comprised of mystical, restful and thought-provoking music as well as various rhythmic compositions. This CD was very positively reviewed by PJ Birosek of Musik International in the July/August edition of "New Age Retailer" magazine; and the album went to the Number 1 spot on RCA's Cable Radio "Music Choice" in the Summer of 1997 as well as appearing on several 1997 Top-10 album playlists published in "New Age Voice." Michael performed an original and very visually-based show in the greater Philadelphia area to promote his music, with an eye to take it nationally someday. This CD continues to receive significant national attention on New Age and Jazz FM cable TV and radio programs. Click HERE to select full-length samples (.mp3 format) of some of Mike's compositions.
Before and high school he apprenticed with Brantley A. Duddy Pipe Organ Builders of Skippack, PA, before going to work in 1973 at Austin Organs of Hartford, CT, where Mike learned much more about the fine art of pipe organ building, tonal finishing, and tuning of the instrument. After entering college 4 years later, Mike worked for two summers as part of a team rebuilding the Solo and Orchestral divisions of the great Wanamaker Organ in Philadelphia. His love of ancient music, Gregorian chant, baroque and liturgical music - and more recently - the more complex and harmonic New Age compositions that became prevalent at the turn of the new millenium have inspired Mike to produce dozens of compositions of intriguing styles (with some utilizing his voice as "instrument"). This culminated in "The Soothsayer's Advice" and led him to select sixteen compositions for inclusion on his first CD.
Professionally
trained as a medical and
scientific illustrator, Michael eventually quite became interested
computer programming, computer-generated design and graphics, and 3-D
animation in the early 1980's. By
1984he decided to investigate sequenced MIDI music production as
well. The combination of his various talents in digitally-based graphics,
video, photography and computer programming led him to pursue a career
in
various forms
of
interactive
multimedia.
Throughout the 1990's, Mike made his living
as a programmer/analyst in the IT department at Drexel University in
Philadelphia,then later as the Director of Web Communications for the
Office of University Relations,
producing
a multitude
of custom
website,
including The
Drexel Museum Collection site. Mike was eventually promoted to
the post of Director of Academic Communications in the Office
of
Provost
at Drexel. Most
recently Mike pioneered the design of the Drexel
University Earle Mack School of Law website.
He
continues to design on a free-lance basis a variety of high-end, interactive
web sites for
clients in the Delaware
Valley, as well as produce medical media.
In
2002 he donated his services to tune and maintain a 100+
year old one manual Johnson tracker pipe organ, as well as donate
his web production and photography talents to design and produce the
website for Trinity
Episcopal Church in Swedesboro, NJ.
Mike
has completed production work on his next CD, called "The
Invisible Color" which
will be released at a future date, and has enough material 'in the
can' to produce a third album someday. When Mike has the extra time
(which is limited these days, as he is now pursuing a nursing degree),
he
spends time gardening and landscaping, painting in oils and watercolor
dyes, and
writing
songs
and lyrics for acoustic guitar.
"The
Soothsayer's Advice"
cost: $23.00 (includes
shipping)
(Please
include your full name,
address and phone number)
Coming in the new millenium:
"Invisible Color"
Send requests/email to: Michael Dean Giamo: mgiamo@michaelgiamo.com
NOTE: all original illustrations by M.D. Giamo
< go back to michaelgiamo.com