Michael Spiroff - 2026-2027 YOUNG ARTISTIC ASSOCIATE

I have always been drawn to music that travels. Across genres, across centuries, across the distances between worlds that seem, on the surface, to have little in common.

Growing up, I was equally captivated by the intricate weave of Renaissance polyphony and the looseness of a jazz trio; by the ornate, florid pull of Macedonian folk song and the harmonic architecture of twentieth-century France. These weren't contradictions to resolve. They were invitations to listen more carefully; to find what each tradition was reaching toward, and to follow that reach into my own work.

What I've come to understand is that the most interesting music happens in the space between. Not fusion; genuine conversation. The kind where both voices are changed by the exchange.

That's what I hear in Confluence Concerts. A group of artists who bring their whole, specific selves to the stage, and trust that those differences are the point. I'm honoured to be part of this team, and to keep asking the question that has always driven me: what happens when worlds genuinely listen to each other?