Biography

After graduating from Peabody Conservatory in May 1980, Michael moved to Palo Alto, California for the summer to attend a four-week seminar in computer-generated music at Stanford University.

While attending Stanford, Hedges started performing regularly at the New Varsity Theater, a popular restaurant, theater, and bar near the university.

Hedges returned to Baltimore in the fall of 1980 to attend a post-graduate electronic music seminar at Peabody, but would soon return to Palo Alto.

In early 1981, Will Ackerman, founder of Windham Hill Records, came to watch a film at the New Varsity Theater. He was urged (even bribed with movie tickets) by the theater’s general manager, Randy Lutge, to listen to the guitarist performing upstairs.

Not easily impressed, Ackerman was reluctant, but he went upstairs, sat down and watched Michael perform. Ackerman later reflected on that night, “[Michael] tore my head off, watching the guitar be reinvented.” Hedges and Ackerman signed a makeshift record contract on a napkin that night.

In October he released his first album, Breakfast in the Field. This album established Hedges as a dynamic and skilled composer-guitarist. He started touring with other Windham Hill artists, including bass guitarist, Michael Manring, who joined Hedges in both the studio and on tour throughout his career.

Hedges continued to release a handful of critically acclaimed solo albums: a live album in 1987 (Live on the Double Planet) which features his dynamic stage performances; a Grammy®-nominated album of both ensemble and solo guitar pieces in 1990 (Taproot); a multi-instrumental vocal album that contained songs he wrote, engineered, produced and performed (The Road to Return [1994]); and in 1996 he released the Grammy® Award-winning instrumental album Oracle.

Along the way, Hedges also contributed music to several film soundtracks, and collaborated with early idols Crosby, Stills & Nash and Pat Martino; labelmates and musical comrades Will Ackerman and Michael Manring; and many others. Although he considered himself a composer first and foremost, Hedges became widely known as an innovator on the acoustic steel-string guitar. After winning the annual Readers Poll award as Best Acoustic Guitarist in various categories from 1988–1993, Hedges was inducted into the Guitar Player “Hall of Fame.”

Michael toured extensively throughout the United States, Japan, and Europe. His live performances were more like a rock concert than a show from a solo instrumentalist. Always performing on his (usually bare) feet, Hedges would dance across the stage, and fling his long hair around. In addition to his original work, he performed uniquely-arranged cover songs written by Bob Dylan, the Beatles, Prince, AC/DC, Madonna, and many others.

And he always brought a high level of humor and entertainment to his shows. In some years, he played over a hundred shows; and, occasionally, he toured with national acts such as Crosby, Still & Nash, Leo Kottke, and Suzanne Vega.

In December 1997, Hedges was tragically killed in an automobile accident on his way home from the San Francisco airport after an East Coast tour. He was survived by his ex-wife Mindy Rosenfeld, his two children, his mother and three siblings. But his music lives on. His manager Hilleary Burgess worked tirelessly with collaborators to release Hedges’ final studio album, Torched, in 1999. And, in the years that followed, his music has been broadcasted extensively on radio shows, in various films, such as the 2007 Hollywood hit August Rush, and on television shows, such as Westwing.

Hedges remains highly respected among the great musicians and performing artists of our time. One example: Hedges’ recorded guitar accompaniment was included on Late Night with Jay Leno when Crosby, Stills & Nash sang “My Country ’Tis of Thee” just after September 11, 2001. Twenty years later, Hedges’ music continues to inspire musicians, guitar builders, and songwriters throughout the world.