Michael is jazz pianist, composer, and playwright who has served as Music Director/ Conductor for a plethora of equity and non-equity shows in Los Angeles, NYC, and San Francisco, including the In the Mood National Tour and The 25th Annual Putnam Spelling Bee regional tour. Other regional credits: On the Town, Sweeney Todd, A Little Night Music, the west coast premiere of A New Brain, Into the Woods, Cabaret, and West Side Story, along with being a part of the creative staff for many new musical workshops, most notably Tony Award-winning George Furth and Doug Katsaros’ new musical, The End.

Michael has also served as arranger/orchestrator for the musicals 23 Coins (NYC’s Nico Spoon Theatre), An Enchanted Evening with Poppy Bulova (NYC International Fringe Festival), Fountain of Youth, and Kevin T. Morales’ Let’s Go to the Movies. He has composed incidental music for regional productions of Torch Song Trilogy, Peter & Wendy, Love Lafayette, and The Unexpected Man.

Michael was Music Director for The Voice’s Louise Van Veenendaal in her numerous Diva DownUnder shows at NYC’s The Duplex and Don’t Tell Mama. As an actor, Michael was “Willie Conklin” (Ragtime), the original accompanist “Floyd” in Shadowbox LIVE’s The Santa Babies, “Fagen Beauregard” in An Enchanted Evening with Poppy Bulova, and “Man #”2” in George Furth and Doug Katsaros’ The End. He also sang with Columbus’ own mouth band, Throat Culture. As a jazz pianist, he has studied with Mark Levine (The Jazz Piano Book), and Peter Horvath; as a vocalist, Michael has studied with Kurt Elling, Madeline Eastman, and Kellye Gray.

Michael premiered his new 10-minute musical Maxton FInk, Extraordinaire in January 2020.

In 2018, New Vision Dance Company premiered his new dance pieces (with his group MoDJAZZ) SYMPHoNY and Branching Out during their season at Columbus’ Garden Theatre.

As a composer, lyricist, and playwright, Michael and his musical The Velocity of Arrows (formally known as Waiting…) was official selections to The Boulder International Fringe Festival and The NYC Fringe Festival. The Velocity of Arrows was also a finalist for The American Harmony Prize and The Chicago Musical Award.

Currently based in Columbus, Michael O’Dell is an alumnus of Boston’s Berklee College of Music (Jazz Studies) and Cleveland’s Baldwin-Wallace Conservatory of Music (B.M. in Music Composition) and a 2017 Recording Workshop graduate. Michael is currently working on his second bachelor degree as an Interdisciplinary Major in English and Film & Media Studies at Arizona State University.

When not gigging with his band MoDJAZZ, Michael makes silly karaoke fun with his LYFT & Uber riders via his company RED CARaOKE™. He is a proud card carrying member of AFM Musician’s Union Local 802.

Visit modjazzmo.com for more information on Michael.