Discography
Die schöne Müllerin
Baritone, Michael Kelly and guitarist, David Leisner bring their deeply colorful perspective to a newly-crafted arrangement by Leisner of Franz Schubert’s seminal work, Die schöne Müllerin for voice and guitar. The twenty song lieder cycle aptly recounts the story of a boy who’s journey to find an apprenticeship ends in a deep dive through the emotional landscape of young unrequited love. The arrangement for the guitar beautifully heightens the intimacy and immediacy of the work, while offering a voyeuristic insight into the cavernous emotional poetic landscape. Released on the Bright Shiny Things label.
Blue and Green Music
This album is a collection of vocal and chamber works written by composer Victoria Bond. It features a song cycle called From an Antique Land composed for Michael and pianist Bradley Moore. Performances by The Cassatt Quartet round out the recording with music inspired by a Georgia O’Keefe painting. Released on the Albany Records Label.
New York Pretending to be Paris
This composer-profile recording offers richly distinct musical settings that unify a group of poems by various contemporary writers. Eric Schorr’s music veers from romantic to jazz to chanson to bossa nova. The album features performances by critically acclaimed singers Eve Gigliotti, Jesse Darden, and Michael Kelly, accompanied by Cris Frisco, Erika Switzer and the 19 Mercer Ensemble. Released by Albany Records.
Gathering
This unabashedly eclectic album features stirring and varied songs by American composer Ben Moore, written over a period of some 30 years and ranging from modern art song to musical theater and cabaret. The texts span some 2,600 years from the ancient poet Sappho to contemporary lyrics. Conceived early in the COVID-19 pandemic, Gathering is united by its message of hope in troubled times and hope for a brighter future.
Alongside one of today’s leading collaborative pianists, Brian Zeger, the album features an extraordinary group of singers capable of performing in a wide range of musical styles: Isabel Leonard, Liz Callaway, Matthew Polenzani, Janai Brugger, Michael Kelly, Alexander Gemignani and Joseph Lattanzi. Released on the Delos Music label
The Pleasing Recollection singles
Three singles are available from the hit one-man cabaret opera The Pleasing Recollection. Created for Michael and pianist Bénédicte Jourdois by composer Martin Hennessy and librettist Stephen Kitsakos, the opera chronicles the journey of a gay man in NYC in the 1970’s and 80’s as he finds career success and eventually true love.
“The songs flow one into the other, continuing through and under the interstitial monologues as the young man treats us to one amazing anecdote after another.”
“Kelly offered up a resonant and truly controlled classically-trained voice, superb diction, and a witty acting style with surprising depth…”
The Voices and Bridges
“The Voices and Bridges” is an ongoing multi-lingual, multicultural collaboration between musicians from many parts of the world including Alireza Ghorbani (lead vocalist), Bombay Jayashri, Celia Woodsmith, Qaiser Nizami, Michael Kelly, Solange Meridinian, Maya Hobeika, Olcay Bayir and others. This music project is an exploration which brings together languages of ancient cultures such as Persian, Spanish, Arabic, English, Turkish, Bengali, Urdu, Kashmiri and French to create a new story that celebrates different cultural traditions from around the world. The lyrics are from compositions by many prominent renowned poets from around the world by medieval and modern poets performed by pioneer musicians and vocalists from different parts of the world with original music written and composed by Ehsan Matoori. The purpose and mission of the project is to bring together diverse musical and poetic traditions and introduce them to the world.
Michael is featured on “The Love Metaphor” track. Released by Bright Shiny Things label.
Zabur
Zabur is a modern oratorio written by Mohammed Fairouz and commissioned and premiered by the Indianapolis Symphonic Choir. I sing the role of the biblical character, David. He is seen here in modern day Syria in a bomb shelter. Feeling lost and despondent, the archangel Gabriel visits him and together they find the strength to go on and to inspire those around them with songs of hope and love.
Conducted by Eric Stark, this live performance was captured for the recording released by Naxos.
"Baritone Michael Kelly poured himself into the work as if he’d seen some of the horrors in person; to hear such emotive singing was uplifting, even though the subject matter was uncomfortable and troubling."
A Field Manual
Together with the Fireworks Ensemble and soprano Courtenay Budd, we performed and recorded David Del Tredici's A Field Manual. The songs are chamber settings of poetry by Edward Field of varying subjects, often explicit in content.
Conducted by Steven Mercurio, this studio recording was released on the eOne label.