Michael Costa

Manuel Michael Costa earned his Baccalaureate Degree in Music from the University of the Pacific Conservatory of Music where he studied percussion with K. Allen Brown and performed under the direction of Dr. Eric Hammer and Dr, Patricia Shands. He earned his Masters Degree in Music from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign where he studied with world renowned percussionist and marimba virtuoso William Moersch. Michael holds a California Single Subject Credential in Music and a Supplemental Credential in Geosciences.

Michael serves as the Music Director and District Department Chair for the Anderson Union High School District. Before that he held positions at Enterprise High School, Merced High School and served for many years at the Tracy High School Performing Arts Magnet where he himself was a graduate. Additionally, Michael has served as Adjunct Professor of Music at Simpson University and instructs percussion at Shasta College through which he also teaches several dually enrolled piano courses.

Michael is currently a member of the North State Symphony. He has also performed with the Champaign-Urbana Symphony, Danville Symphony Orchestra, Stockton Symphony, and served as Principal Percussionist with the Stockton Concert Band and Delta Winds with whom he performed at Carnegie Hall in New York City and the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington D.C. He has also performed as a marimba soloist at Taplin Hall at Princeton University, Zipper Hall at the Colburn School in Los Angeles, and at the Bruckner International School in Linz, Austria.

In addition to classical music, Michael plays drums, percussion and vibraphone with a number of jazz groups including David Short’s Sax Therapy, The Usual Suspects and his own jazz combo. He has recorded for several artists including Charles Valona and has maintained several original music projects. As a pit musician he has performed for various productions throughout the central valley, bay area, and the north state. Michael is a proponent of new music and has premiered many works for marimba, chamber ensemble, and percussion ensemble, as well as a ballet, and several symphonic works.

Michael is a member of the National Association of Music Educators, the Northern California Band and Choir Directors Association, the California Music Educators Association, and annually accompanies honor ensembles in Northern California.