Composer Mike O’Mara is the Director of Music for the Music Institute of Chicago's Musical Theater Program and Director of several vocal ensembles in addition to teaching as a piano and composition faculty member. He has served as an accompanist, coach and instructor with the DePaul University Community Music Program, Illinois Pathways to Development, Arts Link Illinois and the Chicago Children’s Choir, and has appeared as a musical director at various productions in and around the Chicago area. Mike earned his Master’s and Bachelor’s degrees in Music Composition with high honors from DePaul University’s School of Music where he studied piano under Dimitry Paperno, harpsichord under Roger Goodman and composition with Dr. Kurt Westerberg. He has performed in numerous recitals as pianist and singer. In addition, he has composed choral, orchestral and musical theater works for students of all ages and abilities, including ten full-length musical scores for the Music Institute’s Company high school ensemble and various scores for stage and film. Mike maintains a large private studio of piano, vocal and songwriting students aged five to sixty-five. As a composer, his choral, orchestral and musical theatre works have been performed by numerous ensembles, from grade schools to universities. In 2013, he will have choral works premiered in Wisconsin, California, Ohio and Arizona, and will be premiering string orchestra arrangements in Japan at the Suzuki World Conference in March. Multiple works of musical theatre will also be premiered in Chicago and Los Angeles. Mike is a winner of the 2012 Silver Platter Award for Compositional Excellence granted by the American Choral Directors' Association.