Michael Thurber is an American composer, songwriter, bassist and actor. He is a co-founder of CDZA, a

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

music collective that performed at the YouTube Music Awards in 2013. Thurber has composed scores for theater productions such as ''Antony and Cleopatra'' at

The Public Theater The Public Theater is an arts organization in New York City. Founded by Joseph Papp, The Public Theater was originally the Shakespeare Workshop in 1954; its mission was to support emerging playwrights and performers.Epstein, Helen. ''Joe Papp: ...

and ''Sugar In Our Wounds'' at the

Manhattan Theater Club Manhattan Theatre Club (MTC) is a theatre company located in New York City, affiliated with the League of Resident Theatres. Lynne Meadow has been the company’s Artistic Director and visionary since 1972. Barry Grove joined the company in 19 ...

. From 2015 to 2016 he was the bassist for Stay Human, the house band on ''

The Late Show With Stephen Colbert ''The Late Show with Stephen Colbert'' is an American late-night talk show, late-night news satire, news and liberal political satire talk show hosted by Stephen Colbert, which premiered on September 8, 2015. Produced by Stephen Colbert, Spartin ...

''. He is on the Board of Directors of National Public Radio's '' From the Top'' and teaches at New York University's Clive Davis Institute.

Early life

Michael Thurber was born in

Tulsa, Oklahoma Tulsa ( ) is the List of municipalities in Oklahoma, second-most-populous city in the U.S. state, state of Oklahoma, after Oklahoma City, and the List of United States cities by population, 48th-most-populous city in the United States. The po ...

and grew up in

Portage, Indiana Portage ( ) is a city in Portage and Westchester townships, Porter County, in the U.S. state of Indiana, on the border with Lake County. The population was 37,926 as of the 2020 census. It is the largest city in Porter County, and third large ...

. He graduated high school from the Interlochen Arts Academy in 2005.

Career

In 2005, Thurber was accepted into

The Juilliard School The Juilliard School ( ) is a Private university, private performing arts music school, conservatory in New York City. Founded by Frank Damrosch as the Institute of Musical Art in 1905, the school later added dance and drama programs and became ...

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

. He was the first undergraduate to be accepted into both the Classical and Jazz divisions. He was a member of Remington, a rock band he founded in 2005 with Ross Mintzer. In 2007, he performed on NPR's ''From the Top'' with

banjo The banjo is a stringed instrument with a thin membrane stretched over a frame or cavity to form a resonator. The membrane is typically circular, and in modern forms is usually made of plastic, where early membranes were made of animal skin. ...

player Bela Fleck.

Stay Human and bassist

From 2015 to 2016, he was the bassist on

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS (an abbreviation of its original name, Columbia Broadcasting System), is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...

's ''The Late Show with Stephen Colbert'' as a member of the

house band A house band is a group of musicians, often centrally organized by a band leader, who regularly play at an establishment. It is widely used to refer both to the bands who work on entertainment programs on television or radio, and to bands which ...

, Jon Batiste and Stay Human. While in the band, he recorded ''The Late Show EP''. Currently, he performs international in a duo with violinist Tessa Lark.

Cdza and YouTube

In 2012, Thurber co-founded CDZA with

Joe Sabia Joe Sabia (born September 16, 1983) is an American filmmaker and digital content producer. He is best known as the creator and voice of "73 Questions", a rapid-fire one-take digital series featuring celebrities that he developed for ''Vogue (magaz ...

and

Matt McCorkle Matt McCorkle is an American artist, sound designer and audio engineer based out of New York City. McCorkle works between a variety of mediums with sound usually being a signature component. Creations likAntipsychotic co-founding cdza, and collabo ...

. CDZA was a

-based music collective that featured over 100 young, conservatory trained performers. As of 2019, the CDZA YouTube channel has over 304,000 subscribers and over 36 million views. In 2012, they created AT&T's "Thank You Notes", a digital ad campaign in collaboration with BBDO. They performed at the first ever YouTube Music Awards, headlining alongside

Lady Gaga Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta (born March 28, 1986), known professionally as Lady Gaga, is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. Known for her image reinventions and versatility across the entertainment industry, she is an influ ...

Arcade Fire Arcade Fire is a Canadian indie rock band from Montreal, Quebec, consisting of husband and wife Win Butler and Régine Chassagne, alongside Richard Reed Parry, Tim Kingsbury, and Jeremy Gara. The band's touring line-up includes former core ...

Eminem Marshall Bruce Mathers III (born October 17, 1972), known professionally as Eminem, is an American rapper, songwriter, and record producer. Regarded as one of the greatest and most influential rappers of all time, he is credited with popula ...

and M.I.A. Thurber later worked with YouTube's event teams as Music Director.

Theater

Thurber wrote the score for ''

Antony and Cleopatra ''Antony and Cleopatra'' is a tragedy by William Shakespeare. The play was first performed around 1607, by the King's Men at either the Blackfriars Theatre or the Globe Theatre. Its first appearance in print was in the First Folio published ...

'', a co-production between The Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford, UK and

. In 2013, Thurber's musical ''Goddess'' was accepted into The Eugene O'Neill Musical Theater Conference. From 2012 to 2017, Thurber wrote the music for several of

's Mobile Shakespeare productions including ''

Pericles Pericles (; ; –429 BC) was a Greek statesman and general during the Golden Age of Athens. He was prominent and influential in Ancient Athenian politics, particularly between the Greco-Persian Wars and the Peloponnesian War, and was acclaimed ...

'', ''

Macbeth ''The Tragedy of Macbeth'', often shortened to ''Macbeth'' (), is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, estimated to have been first performed in 1606. It dramatises the physically violent and damaging psychological effects of political ambiti ...

'', and ''

Twelfth Night ''Twelfth Night, or What You Will'' is a romantic comedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written around 1601–1602 as a Twelfth Night entertainment for the close of the Christmas season. The play centres on the twins Viola an ...

''. Thurber also acted in ''

'', performing the role of Antonio. In 2016, Thurber wrote and performed his one man musical ''The Booty Call'', which was produced for a month long run at The Barrow Group Theater. In 2018, Thurber composed scores for the plays ''Sugar In Our Wounds'' at MTC and ''Eddie and Dave'' at The Atlantic Theater Company. In 2018, he received a Working Farm residency at SPACE on Ryder Farm. In 2025, Thurber received his first

Tony Award The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Broadway Theatre, more commonly known as a Tony Award, recognizes excellence in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ce ...

nomination for Best Orchestrations for his work on Just in Time.

Concert music and other compositions

In 2015, Thurber wrote ''Three Musketeers: A Play for Instruments''. The piece is a quadruple concerto written for and featuring pianist

Kris Bowers Kristopher Bowers (born April 5, 1989) is an American composer, pianist, and director. He has composed scores for films including '' Green Book'', '' King Richard'', '' The Color Purple'', and '' The Wild Robot'' and television series ''Bridgert ...

, clarinetist Mark Dover and violinist Charles Yang. It was premiered on a live radio broadcast with The Interlochen Academy Orchestra. That same year, Thurber also joined the board of NPR's From The Top and composed music for the dance piece "B Sides" choreographed by Tiffany Rea Fisher for Dallas Black Dance. In 2016, he composed "Jam Session", a horn piece for virtuoso hornist William VerMeulen, commissioned by the International Horn Society and a violin concerto "Love Letter" for violinist Tessa Lark. Thurber has written commercial scores for '' Vanity Fair'',

BBC America BBC America is an American basic cable network that is owned by AMC Networks. The channel primarily airs sci-fi and action series and films, as well as selected programs from the BBC (such as its nature documentary series). Unlike the BBC's ...

and

CollegeHumor Dropout, incorporated as CH Media and formerly known as CollegeHumor, is an Internet comedy company based in Los Angeles that produces content for release on its streaming service Dropout (streaming platform), Dropout as well as YouTube. Dropou ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Thurber, Michael Living people American double-bassists American bass guitarists Year of birth missing (living people) The Late Show with Stephen Colbert The Late Show Band members American musical theatre composers American male musical theatre composers American classical composers American male stage actors Songwriters from Oklahoma