Michael Azzopardi comes from a large and very musical family. His father Joe Azzopardi helped pioneer the sound of funk/soul in Australia in the 60's and 70's with Azzopardi family band "Afrika" featuring Mary, Rita, Tony, and Mario Azzopardi, who are all still active in the music industry. The strong presence of music in his family inspired Michael and older brother Luke (who is an amazingly talented and versitile vocalist) from an early age.
Born in Sydney in 1984, Michael started classical piano lessons at age 5, quickly moving through exams and competing in eisteddfods, winning the Australian Music School's competition and overall performance awards. He was later accepted into the Newtown High School of the Performing Arts. During this period, Michael was not only performing on Piano, but also Clarinet, Trombone, tuned and untuned Percussion, Drums, and Voice. By his early teens, Michael turned his attention to Jazz Piano, studying at the Sydney Conservatorium, performing with many of Sydney's top Jazz and session musicians by age 16.
In 2003, Michael was accepted into the Australian National University School of Music to complete a Bachelor of Music (Jazz). Whilst studying, Michael was awarded the 2005 Michael Foster Scholarship, for outstanding achievment in Jazz.
While at ANU, Michael was approached by USA bassist and ANU lecturer Eric C. Ajaye (Freddie Hubbard, Bennie Maupin, Nancy Wilson, Pointer Sisters, Taj Mahal) to form the Canberra based trio "Straight Up!", along with drummer Chris Thwaite (Katook). They released 2 albums; "The Flow" in 2006 and "Another Year" in 2007. Both albums received critical acclaim and are played regularly on National radio. Their performances throughout Australia received rave reviews.
Since graduating from ANU in 2006, Michael has earned a reputation as an exciting and versatile musician, and has had the opportunity to perform/record with Australian and international artists spanning many different genres including Marcia Hines, Bob Mintzer, Don Burrows, Lucky Oceans, Joan Rivers, Jeff Duff, Doug Parkinson, Eric Ajaye, Emma Pask, Kristen Berardi, Miroslav Bukovsky and Mi Tierra. Michael is now a member of The Sydney Jazz Orchestra.
In 2008, Michael joined bassist Jeremy Alsop, drummer Mark Charters, and trumpeter/programmer Rohan Wallis to form a brand new project called "The Strange Music Of Reality". They have recorded the material for their first release "Volume 1" which will be launched in the very near future. Please visit thestrangemusicofreality.com to find out more about this exciting new project!
Michael is also in demand for work in Musical Theatre productions. His theatre credits include:
"Jersey Boys"
2010/2011 - Sydney as Assistant Musical Director
2012 - New Zealand as Assitant Musical Director
"Avenue Q"
2009/2010 - Melbourne, Sydney, Canberra, Adelaide as Assistant Musical Director, Perth & Brisbane as Musical Director
"Priscilla, Queen Of The Desert"
2007/2008 - Australia, New Zealand as Deputy Conductor
"Saturday Night Fever"
2004/2005 - Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Malaysia
"Burn The Floor - Floorplay"
(Recorded piano parts for world tour)
Michael is currently working as Assistant Musical Director of the hit musical "Jersey Boys" in Auckland, New Zealand.
