About Michelle Saacks

Michelle was born in Beckenham, England. Something of a child prodigy, Michelle started playing piano at age three in London starting her first piano lessons with a neighbor, and then continuing with piano and guitar lessons. When she was thirteen, Michelle's family moved to South Africa and she continued her piano and guitar studies there, receiving her Bachelors Music degree from Cape Town University. During this time, she formed her first bands, playing locally as well as in the townships of Nyanga and Langa and at local music festivals.

Michelle returned to England in 1982 and got involved with the burgeoning classical guitar movement headed up by John Duarte. By the beginning of 1985, Michelle had crossed the pond and settled in New York City to join the exciting jazz scene there. She studied jazz piano and ensemble at the Jazzmobile where young jazz musicians studied with Jazz greats such as Ronnie Mathews, Billy Taylor, Sharon Freeman, Walter Bishop, Jimmy Heath, Frank Wess, Randy Wilson, Charlie Persip and Freddie Waits to name a few. It was a magical time for young Jazz musicians with Dizzy Gillespie and other Jazz luminaries keeping a fatherly eye on the young jazz musicians coming up and learning at their knee. Many gigs locally and in Europe followed, performing and often wearing the musical director or arranger hat. Michelle has worked in many musical genres from performing Latin Montunos with Yomo Toro at SOB's in New York, playing with the inimitable R&B singer Gwen Guthrie, unforgettable experiences with The Inkspots, The Marvelettes and Ben E. King as a neophyte pianist in New York City to recording with Velvet Underground drummer Maureen Tucker and Sterling Morrison, assisting John Cale with orchestrating "The Falkland Suite" - settings of Dylan Thomas poetry for voice and orchestra and assisting Herbie Hancock on arrangements for his mammoth tour with the Brecker Brothers promoting the Future Shock album.

Following the birth of her son in 1999, Michelle scaled back her busy schedule to focus on her son and after moving to Cornwall this Spring is looking forward to bending Cornish ears with her deft fingers!

For more details about Michelle's work, check out these links:

• Pamela West Official Website
• “I Spent a Week There the Other Night” by Maureen Tucker
  • Wikipedia Entry
  • Article by Maureen “Moe” Tucker
• Present Day Misconceptions About Bach Performance Practice in the Nineteenth Century (see footnote 1)
• “The Three Ecstasies” on OffOffOnline.com
• “Waiting for My Men” by Maureen Tucker