Meet the composer
Following his graduation from high school in Falmouth Maine, Michael attended the University of Miami where his abilities earned him a spot on the music school’s jazz department teaching staff at age 19. After receiving a Bachelor of Music degree in Studio Music & Jazz and completing coursework for a master’s degree in Theory/Composition, Michael moved to Boston where he joined the faculty at the Berklee College of Music.
Teaching jazz improvisation at University of Miami, circa 1972
After teaching for a year, he decided to move to New York to pursue a working career as a freelance trombonist and arranger. As a professional trombonist Michael performed with top name artists, including jazz greats Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers, Tom Harrell, Pat Metheney, Doc Severinson & The Tonight Show Orchestra; singers Tony Bennett, Tom Jones, Ann Margaret, Kenny Rogers, Seals & Crofts; and played in the orchestra of several Broadway shows. As a musical arranger he has written extensively for jingles, recordings, theatre, and film.
In 1985 Michael left the music business to start a wireless technology company, Conference-Mate Systems, which in time became one of the top firms in the country specializing in the design and manufacturing of hearing assistance and language interpretation systems. He was awarded two U.S. patents for wireless devices and his equipment was widely used in courtrooms and corporate conference facilities.
Performing in concert, circa 2015
After retiring from business in 1998, Michael returned to music, teaching instrumental music and theater arts in the New Jersey public schools for the next 17 years while launching a second musical career. During this period he wrote and produced (in an ill-fated Broadway attempt) the musical America: Land of Opportunity, composed dozens of works for concert band and chorus, and composed and recorded 6 critically acclaimed CDs; Detour (2007), Unity (2008), Turnaround (2010), Boys’ Night Out (2012), and PopCulture Blues (2013), You Better Watch Out! (2017) for his jazz group, The Michael Treni Big Band.
Hear Michael on the Trombone
Mike Treni Big Band at Trumpets Jazz Club, 2010
Michael is a member of the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP), and The Dramatists Guild of America. He now resides in Venice, Flordia with his wife, where he remains professionaly active as a trombonist, composer/arranger, and producer.
