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Composer / songwriter / bassist

Michael Thurber

One musician. Many ways into a story.

Michael Thurber seated on stone steps
Michael Thurber. Portrait from his artist website.

From the bass line
to the whole stage.

Michael Thurber is a composer, songwriter, producer and multi-instrumentalist whose work moves between theatre, concert music, recordings and film.

His projects include the violin-and-bass duo with Tessa Lark, co-founding CDZA and playing bass in the house band on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. His artist biography records training at Interlochen and Juilliard.

In theatre, his credits span composition, lyrics and orchestration. Those roles are different: the project chronology below names the work and the credit together.

For current professional enquiries, follow the artist website. Music-service availability varies by country.

A life in collaboration.

Explore the recordings ↗
Tessa Lark and Michael Thurber with violin and bass, seated beneath a tree
Tessa Lark & Michael Thurber. Photograph: Lauren Desberg. Published in the Philharmonic Society’s 2024 release.
Michael Thurber playing an electric bass during a performance
Michael Thurber performing. From NS Design’s artist profile; photographer not identified by the source.
Michael Thurber and another musician playing electric basses at NAMM
Playing together at NAMM, 2014, as identified in the NS Design image record. Photographer not identified.
Michael Thurber seated with an electric bass
Michael Thurber with electric bass. From NS Design’s artist profile; photographer not identified.

Follow the work.

Selected projects / 2012–2026
  1. 2012

    The Story of Sushi ↗

    Score credited to Michael Thurber; film directed by Joe Sabia and Vincent Peone.

  2. 2013

    Antony and Cleopatra ↗

    Composer for Tarell Alvin McCraney’s RSC production; the teacher pack discusses the relationship between sound, movement and place.

  3. 2019

    Invention ↗

    Violin-and-bass album with Tessa Lark, combining their own music and arrangements.

  4. 2019

    From the Top, show 376 ↗

    Guest hosts Tessa Lark and Michael Thurber; recorded in Boston on 6 October.

  5. 2025

    Goddess ↗

    Music, lyrics and orchestrations in the Public Theater programme. Book and direction: Saheem Ali; additional book material: James Ijames.

  6. 2025

    Just in Time ↗

    Tony nomination for Best Orchestrations, jointly with Andrew Resnick. This is a nomination, not a Tony win.

  7. 2026

    Concert and theatre projects ↗

    Presenter announcements document a Time for Three concerto and original orchestrations/music supervision for Public Record. Read the dated credits and their limits.

Four songs. Four doors in.

Full recording index ↗

Listen with a question.

Projects & primary sources

Lark & Thurber ↗ · CDZA ↗

The music credits on this page describe Michael Thurber’s work. The later general-interest journal published on this domain is a separate editorial strand; newly developed guides are by MichaelT editorial.

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