Michael Carney
Music

Pianist-vocalist Michael Carney first became an orchestra leader at the age of 14, playing for parties in his home town of Irvington, New York and Westchester County. In 1959, after graduating from Northwestern University with a Bachelor's Degree in economics, he moved to Philadelphia and began a career as a security analyst. During this time, he and two partners started a part-time dance orchestra and in 1967 they decided to become full time musicians. After playing for many parties on the East Coast, Carney moved to New York City in 1970 and began a gradual geographic expansion which has included appearances in 130 cities in 40 states, Canada, the Bahamas and Europe.

Carney describes his music as "dancing jazz." He has assembled a repertoire which includes Broadway show tunes, movie themes, and obscure melodies that are played and sung at medium or faster tempos. For variety he plays several songs with bossa nova and samba beats, and also includes rock and contemporary songs from the 50's to the 90's. The most popular artist whose songs he features are currently Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, Natalie Cole and Harry Connick, Jr. His instrumentation is very different from most orchestras: two to four brass are usually employed along with a rhythm section of piano, bass, guitar, and drums, and often a second pianist and female vocalist.

Engagements in 1998 and in 1999 include benefits for The Metropolitan Opera, New York City Ballet, American Museum of Natural History, New York Botanical Garden, Memorial Sloane-Kettering Cancer Center, Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center, Hospital for Special Surgery, national Center for Learning Disabilities, New York Restoration Project, the United States Ski Team Foundation and the Junior Assembly in New York; benefits for The Institute of Art, The Museum Campus, The Shaad Aquarium and the Chicago Academy of Sciences in Chicago; Palace de Versailles benefit in Paris, France; benefits for the National Symphony, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Associates, Choral Arts Society and the Meridian International Center in Washington; benefits for the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark, The Academy of Music in Philadelphia, the Zoo in Cleveland, and the California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco; Children's Hospital and Fleet Science Center benefits in San Diego; Piedmont Hospital benefit in Atlanta; Houston Opera benefit and Allegro Debutante Ball in Houston; benefits for the Kravis Center, Boys and Girls Club, Community Foundation, Juvenile Diabetes and Hanley Hazelden Foundation in Palm beach; Benefits for Missouri Botanical Garden in St. Louis, Oklahoma Aids Care in Oklahoma City, and The Opera in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Michael Carney has also made eleven appearances at the White House during Ford, Reagan and Bush administrations.