Donnell Libary NYC with Diane Wolkstein - Summer 2005
Donnell Libary NYC with Diane Wolkstein – Summer 2005

Michael collaborates with poets, storytellers, dancers, theatre and mime. He has accompanied the storytellers Diana Wolkstein, Robin Bady, Theresa Folkes-Plair and Laura Simms, poets Chrys Salt, Donald Smith, Bashabi Fraser and Kim Rosen, worked with dancers Lori Bellalov and Jill Sonke, and accompanied the mime Dale Walkonen.

In a longtime collaboration with Diane Wolkstein, Michael played violin as she told stories from around the world, including Haiti, Africa, Denmark, India, and America. They performed together at public libraries, including the Donnell in New York City, at festivals, in house concerts at Diana’s home (Fairy Tales by Candlelight, audio on this page), at Scandinavia House and the Rubin Museum, and at the Hans Christian Anderson Statue in Central Park in New York, where Diane started and led the storytelling for 40 years.

Michael improvised on the poem From the Ganga to the Tay by Bashabi Fraser in 2011, at the Gorgie Dalry Parish Church in the Edinburgh Festival with poets Chrys Salt and Donald Smith, weaving together Indian ragas and Scottish Music. In the summer of 2013, he performed with Chrys Salt again in 2013 on Hymns of the Rig Veda, translated by Jean LeMee, at the Bakehouse, in Gatehouse of Fleet in South-West Scotland, and at Salmon Poetry at the American Irish Historical Society in New York City.

Donnell Libary NYC with Diane Wolkstein - Summer 2005
Donnell Libary NYC with Diane Wolkstein – Summer 2005